Make Yourself
by Maiya Asuka
Summary: Bakura and Ryou are in a horrible accident. Bakura has turned Ryou into something similar to him, but when Ryou can't remember any of this, his parents create a whole new false life for him to live. [Longawaited ch. 17 IS UP!]
1. Under the Influence

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 01: Under the Influence  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

"Bakura. BAKURA!" called Ryou, getting more and more agitated with each time that he called his boyfriend's name. As soon as he saw a spiky cluster of long white hair, he snagged the guy around the shoulders and began to draw him towards the door. However, with the lighting of only a disco ball overhead, Ryou's vision was obscured, and he had no idea that the hair was blonde, not white.

"Hey, you sick faggot! What the hell are you doing!" shouted the stranger in protest.

Now realizing his mistake, Ryou immediately released his hold on him and apologized, bowing his head. He laughed nervously. "Gomen! Gomen nasai! I thought you were my boyfriend! It's hard to tell in this light."

"Whatever, man. Just stay the hell away from me!"

Ryou sighed. Was Bakura crazy? Sure, he liked to party just as much as the older boy, but this club was insane! He'd be wondering around in it looking for his lover forever. Suddenly, he felt two muscular arms coil around his waist, then pull him backwards. "Wha--" He was cut off by a pair of hot lips locking on his mouth.

When Bakura stopped kissing Ryou, he put his own head next to Ryou's and murmured, "Let's get out of here. It's getting boring, and all these people are way too uptight."

"Yea." agreed the younger, recalling what had just happened with an apparent homophobe.

After the light of the two sat in the passenger seat, Bakura put himself behind the wheel. Every once in a while, the thought of that frightened Ryou, but he trusted his boyfriend. And, of course, while Bakura and alcohol were best friends, he was smart enough not to go driving under the influence. So, after Ryou reminding him, he didn't drink a drop of beer back at the club.

"Do you want to stay at my house tonight, love?" asked the driver, keeping his eyes on the road but occasionally looking at the passenger sideways. "There's enough room in my bed for two." A light smirk crossed his lips.

"Gee, Bakura. I mean, I'd love to and all, but, I-I don't know."

The smirk disappeared and was replaced with a frown. "It's your parents, isn't it, Ryou? They hate me, don't they? I've seen the way they look at me."

A tinge of guilt hit Ryou in the heart. "That's nonsense, 'Kura-kun! Why would they hate you?"

"I 'made you gay', I 'turned you into a bad boy', I'm an alcoholic, I'm--"

"--just perfect the way you are." Insisted Ryou, interrupting the flow of Bakura's self criticism. He hated it when the older teen started feeling low about himself.

Bakura still looked distressed, but decided not to argue. Ryou propped his elbow on the car door handle and his chin on his palm, staring out into the darkness of the night. He yawned. To say he was tired would be an understatement. It was almost two in the morning, and that disrupted his sleep pattern, which was very delicate. Once again, he yawned.

"Sleepy, love?" asked Bakura softly.

Wow. Bakura was never this sweet to anyone else. Ryou felt so special that he could see this side of him. "Yes."

"I'm sorry. I'll turn off the radio so you can go to sleep then." He did so, making the car almost dead silent. When he saw his boyfriend closing his eyes and trying to go to sleep, he ran a hand through his hair and said, "Don't you want to lean back? That can't be comfortable with your neck all out of position."

"It's fine. The knob to lean it back is really hard to turn."

Bakura shrugged, and turned his attention back to the road.

A few seconds after, Ryou was abruptly shaken from his sleep. His eyes snapped open.

The car was swerving at the hands of the eighteen year old of the two look alikes. "What the fuck, you stupid crazy drunks!" Bakura screamed out the window, shaking his fist at a nearby car that was driving past. "I'm sorry, Ryou-kun. These idiots are obviously DUI, and I'm trying to keep from getting us killed."

Ryou looked out his window to the left. From what he could see, a red sports car was blazing down the highway, swerving even more than Bakura was. Either the driver was incredibly fickle, lost on which lane he wanted to drive in, or incredibly drunk, not really having a choice which lane they drove in. Either way, the situation was frightening him.

There were four lanes out there on the road: two going each direction, side by side. While Bakura and Ryou were on the innermost lane to the double yellow line, the drunks were on the outside. Inside, outside, inside, outside again. Now enraged, the safer of the two drivers slammed his fist on the horn, which burst into the night like a siren. Once again, he shouted at the red car. "Watch the fuck out already!" Since he wasn't on the side nearest to the lunatics, he had to cry straight up into the air instead of out towards them. But were they seriously that deaf, or just ridiculously stupid?

Several times, Bakura had to slam on the brakes, but even then, he hardly felt safe.

_Shit! Isn't there any way to get around this?_

Ryou's chocolate colored eyes began to widen in shock. "K-Kura! It's coming ri--" before he could finish his warning, the red sports car rammed right into the car door on Ryou's side with a loud, very loud, _crash_.

"Ryou!" Bakura managed to scream before he lost consciousness.

The impact on Ryou's passenger side caused the car to flip over a few times, not stopping until the roof of the car had been turned over on the pavement twice.

At that time, he had no idea what had become of the intoxicated drivers. Not that he knew what was happening to himself or his love, either. He didn't understand anything at the moment. All he knew was pain. And then, darkness, as everything around him, including his memory, went black.

_So cold. So bright. Where am I? What am I doing here. . .? Who am I. . .? _thought the hospitalized teen. _I have to know. What's going on?_

"Mr. Ryou? Are you awake?"

"Mmmmmph," groaned Bakura, shifting slightly.

"Mr. Ryou, my name is Nurse Akaki. Do you remember anything that happened?"

Okay, so she was a nurse. Well, right now, he wasn't in the mood for this. Despite this, he continued to answer her stupid questions. "Mr. Ryou? Is that my name? 'What happened'? I guess I don't. What did happen?"

Akaki looked down at her clipboard and flipped through some yellow pages. After a few moments, she found what she was looking for, and continued to speak. "You and your boyfriend, Ryou Bakura, were in a severe car accident with some unidentified drunk drivers, dear. According to what a witness has told the police, a red sports car head-on plowed into the passenger side of the car and caused it to roll over two or three times. It stopped with the roof against the road, suspending you upside down for a while, until the paramedics could come in to help you."

The dark brown eyes widened. He remembered it all now. All of it. Every last detail, including the club and the whole whiplash ordeal. His voice screaming at the insane drivers echoed and resonated through his head. He didn't even want to think about it. There were more important things. "Ryou. Where's Ryou!" he demanded, beginning to sound panicked.

Nurse Akaki's green eyes blinked a few times. "Behind that curtain," she explained, pointing to the curtain hanging from a large metal track on the ceiling, "but I'm afraid he cannot be disturbed."

"How-how is he? Bad?"

She frowned. From the expression she was wearing, Bakura doubted his boyfriend was okay. "Not so good. If he was in the passenger seat, it would explain his condition. The drunk's car hit his side. He is also smaller and a bit weaker, making his more vulnerable. It's a miracle we could save him." She sighed and briefly peeked around the barrier divided the room in half. "I'm not even sure if he'll make it through the night." Akaki paused to flip through her clipboard again. "Ah, here it is. Mr. Bakura probably will survive because of his airbag activating in time. His left leg is broken, since it was against the door that the red sports car collided with. The paramedics found him with multiple cuts and gashes because of the broken window glass. He has a critical concussion, so his amnesia will be in effect longer than yours. Quite a bit longer."

"How long? How long will it take him to remember everything?" he asked, worried that he'd have to start his relationship with Ryou all over again.

Akaki sighed. "I'm really not sure, dear. I guess it depends. The sooner you reintroduce him to the things he once knew, the sooner he'll remember all of it."

"May I please see him?"

The brunette nurse gently patted Bakura on the shoulder. "I'm sorry. I told you, he cannot be disturbed."

"Please. I need to see him. I'm so worried about him."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ryou." Nurse Akaki made her way to the door after checking some papers on her plastic clipboard. She reached for the gray handle, but turned back once more to face her awake patient. He was looking away, with a wistful, despaired look in his eyes. She felt so increasingly guilty with each second she saw him like this. Now turning her back to the door, she faced Bakura once more. "Ah, well, I guess I could let you see him, for, maybe a minute. But you can't tell ANYONE about this, okay?" Reluctance was thick in her voice.

Not even bothering to reply, Bakura sat up, now remembering to check his own condition.

Ugh. Not so great. He had gauze was patched all over his body, particularly his face and arms. A cast encased his right leg, he wore an eye patch on his right eye, and he had longer white bandages wrapped around his head, stomach and abs.

However, he couldn't let any of this distract him. Seeing Ryou was his top priority. He scanned the flower-printed wall and found a crutch, which he used to make the short distance to Ryou's bed. He pushed away the curtain and immediately checked his love up and down. It was just as the nurse said: only it appeared ten times worse. Perhaps she just didn't want to get too descriptive.

He wore a cast on his left leg, and just like Bakura, Ryou had tiny white bandages and medical tape all over his face, arms, and chest. His stomach wasn't wrapped, but his head was, and more heavily than Bakura's.

The eighteen year old knelt at his bed and grasped the pale, cold hand tightly. "I hope you're okay, Yo-chan. I don't know what I'll do if you don't wake up."

Akaki smiled, not because of her patients' obvious pain, but because she was touched by Bakura's dedication and love. Very softly, she whispered, "I'll leave you alone now."

For about half an hour, poor Bakura had to cry to get his emotions out. He stayed at the bedside on his knees for about two more hours. When he peered up at the clock, it was about 1 in the morning. Exhausted, he slept, but refused to go back to his bed and leave Ryou. Hand in hand, he fell asleep with one arm wrapped softly around his other half, and rested his head against that other half's thigh.

"I love you, Ryou. I don't want to lose you."

_-you. Ryou. Ryou._

_Who is this calling "Ryou"? Who?_

". . .Mr. Bakura? Are you awake?" asked a soft, unfamiliar voice. Ryou shifted with a groan in response. Seeing her patient finally awake, she smiled. "Good morning, Mr. Bakura!"

_What's so good about--"Mr. Bakura"? "Ryou"? Are those my names?_

"Mr. Bakura, do you remember anything? Anything at all?"

"No."

Nurse Akaki flipped to the same page of her clipboard she was on when she had been explaining things to Bakura. "You were in a severe car accident with some unidentified drunk drivers, dear. According to what a witness has told the police, a red sports car head-on plowed into the passenger side of the car and caused it to roll over two or three times. It stopped with the roof against the road, suspending you upside down for a while, until the paramedics could come in to help you. Now tell me, do you remember any of this at all?"

"No."

Akaki frowned, wondering what to do about this. "I see. Well, a friend of yours was in here very late last night, staying by your side until he no longer could. He's an amazing person. He too was hurt in the accident but has already recovered and left. Your parents are here. Would you like to see them?"

"Yes, please."

She bowed her head slightly. "Okay, Mr. Bakura. I will leave you alone now." She turned around and opened the door. "You may come in now, Mr. and Mrs. Bakura."

Two tall figures rushed in past the nurse (almost knocking her to the floor), and took their son's hand. "Honey! Ryou, are you all right, baby?" said his mother.

Ryou blinked. Was he always this close to his parents? "Uh, sure. I'm fine."

"Thank God." said his father with a relieved sigh.

"Kaa-san, Tou-san. Will you please remind me what my life was like before this accident?"

The two parents looked at each other. Now was their chance. The perfect opportunity to have their son the way they wanted him to be. The old Ryou was a hardcore rock goth, gay, a partier, and just plain disobedient. It was all thanks to his boyfriend, Bakura Ryou. Just because their names were the same but reversed didn't mean that he needed to go in and change him. They didn't like the way their son had turned out, and now they had the chance to go back, rewind, and start over.

Not quite sure what to say, Ryou's kaa-san shifted in her chair and looked at her acrylic nails nervously as if they would reveal the answer. "Oh, I'm not even quite sure where to begin. Maybe your father should explain it to you."

Ryou turned his gaze to his tou-san intently, wanting to remember again. Little did he know that his parents had no intentions of telling him the truth. Still, they had to tell him _something_ true, or he'd never enjoy himself.

"Well, son, you see. You're a big rock music fan, but very conservative and polite. You're into fine art, symphonic music, and such. You're a huge Christian and always know what's right."

Ha! If Bakura had been there to see Mr. Bakura feed Ryou all these ridiculous lies, he would have laughed his ass off. This was not his boyfriend at all! Then again, had Bakura been there, he would have stopped these lies in their tracks. He definitely wasn't the type to put up with this bullshit.

Alas, Bakura wasn't here, but at home, phoning Ryou's house and leaving a message on his answering machine.

Ryou nodded, curiosity gone now that he "knew" what he was like. Satisfied that her innocent son had bought it, Mrs. Bakura left the room to talk about medical bills. Meanwhile, Ryou's tou-san had a certain someone he needed to call. He was almost glad his son got in a car wreck.

Since Bakura had been sitting by the phone waiting for his boyfriend to call him, the phone rang once, and shortly after, he picked up the receiver. "Ryou?"

"Not quite."

"Mr. Bakura!" he said, trying to keep his voice sounding happy and pleasant. "It's nice to talk to you again, sir."

"Cut the shit, Bakura. Ryou's hurt and it's your fault."

"Mr. Bakura, I'm sorry for the confusion. I was completely sober and everything. These DUI's just plowed right into us! I tried my best to save ourselves, but there was no other way to avoid it."

"Quit blaming others, Bakura. Don't even bother trying to speak to Ryou. Don't even go near him ever again. His mother and I have turned his life around due to his memory loss. He doesn't remember you, his homosexuality, or any of his old lifestyle. Don't even ask what will happen if you try to be with him again. He's starting over new, so just fuck off."

"I see." said Bakura quietly, despair quickly taking hold of him. This sucked ass. He could barely comprehend everything happening. "Well, good day to you, Mr. Bakura." With that, he slammed the phone down with a sigh. Bakura was seriously questioning Ryou's parents' sanity. No sane parent would go that far. In the end, eventually, Ryou would remember everything, and Mister and Misses Bakura's efforts would prove futile.

Knowing this, he knew sometime he'd find a way around this. He just wasn't sure how he was going to right now.

_I guess I should forget about a full night's rest._ he told himself. _I've got a plan to concoct._

_

* * *

_

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please.


	2. Stellar

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 02: Stellar  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Ryou sat in the park, peacefully listening to joyous birds sing. He felt as if something was missing. Something wasn't right. But not knowing what that was, he decided to ignore the feeling. Setting down the small paintbrush he'd been using, the young teen sighed. Why had his parents been so hesitant to tell him what he'd forgotten? It was a simple inquiry, yet it was almost like they had something to hide. . .

_Don't worry about it, Ryou._ he thought, trying to reassure himself. At least that felt right: his name, Ryou Bakura. He couldn't remember anything, even when his kaa-san and tou-san tried to refresh his memory. He was a fine arts fanatic? A theatre fanatic? It was hard to believe when he didn't really seem to enjoy himself with these things. Perhaps these activities seemed so empty because Ryou himself felt empty as well.

He smiled and reminded himself not to be so depressive. Picking a pencil up, he concluded that it would be easier to think about how he felt by painting it. Quickly getting an idea, he began to sketch on the blank canvas. It revealed the right half of his face, with a fairly distressed look in his dark brown eyes. It was all he'd do today: it took artists years to complete a masterpiece, and this was no different. He would take his time so it would turn out better than any kid his age could do.

Detailing the shading and erasing extra lines, he became so absorbed in his work that he hadn't noticed the tall figure behind him. "It's quite good." Ryou's concentration was shattered by a deep, British enriched voice. "Oh, the drawing, I mean."

Bakura stared in wonder but tried to hide his surprise. Was this some freaky nightmare, or had Mr. and Mrs. Bakura actually created an art student graduate prodigy overnight? The old Ryou that he knew could barely draw for shit. What was going on with this talent? Though Bakura didn't exactly understand how this was possible, he couldn't deny that the work was quite lovely.

"Uh, thanks." answered the younger boy unenthusiastically. He obviously wasn't thrilled to have some critic bothering him. But as he turned to see the man's face, some kind of wave went through his mind. A familiar face? Maybe a friend? This could be his only chance to ask: if he didn't, he probably wouldn't ever see this guy again. "Um, hey. This will sound really dumb, but. . .do I know you from somewhere?"

"YES! YES!" Bakura yearned to scream from every rooftop and skyscraper in Domino City. But as he hastily remembered what the parents of his secret love had told him, he decided to be a little less direct with his nonexistent "plan." After he did some thorough research, he found out that Mr. and Mrs. Bakura told the truth about one thing: that he was a huge fan of the rock music group "The Sleep." The two liars had completely forgotten exactly how involved he was in the rock music industry. With a sly smile and thinking fast, he replied, "Well, kind of. You know that rock group, 'The Sleep'? I'm the lead singer. I probably look familiar because of that."

Bakura wasn't lying, either. Two years ago, The Sleep recorded their debut album, "The Rude Awakening." It was an instant hit, and it sky-rocketed their career. As a group, the band used to travel a lot, but now, during their third year in the music business, they were taking a year off to forget the stress. Pretty soon, that would be over, and they'd be on the road again.

He had to get Ryou back, and quick. If he didn't, he would likely never see him again; that wasn't something Bakura was willing to accept at all. He would not take no for an answer.

"Wow." answered Ryou, sounding more interested now. "Could I get your autograph?"

Before the car wreck, Ryou had had autographs from every member of The Sleep on his bedroom walls: dozens from Bakura, since they'd been boyfriends. But, of course, Mrs. Bakura hadn't failed to strip the walls of those autographs. The rock star knew damn well that his signatures were nothing but ash, not only burned in a fire of lies, but crumbled to illegible shreds of Ryou's mind. Knowing that he had no more autographs, he smiled and replied, "I think you definitely could." Snatching a blank sheet of paper from the teen's stash of art, he scribbled the name "Bakura Ryou" on it and handed it back to him. "There you go."

"Thanks a lot. It was a pleasure talking to you."

"Heh. I love my fans." Bakura fished into his jeans pocket and handed Ryou a blue ticket along with a card hanging by a necklace string. "Here's your key to our show on Friday night and a backstage pass. Come see me and my buds after the show."

Ryou looked back and forth between Bakura and the small slip of paper. "You will see me there."

"Good."

Ryou stood in the huge crowd. He couldn't specifically remember going to rock concerts, but there was some atmosphere about it that was so familiar. All of a sudden, having only about two centimeters between him and a million other people didn't bother him anymore. He plowed his way through, trying to get to the front as he could. . .

Bakura's hand twitched as he began to apply his stage make up. A small black dot appeared on his face due to his trembling fingers. "What the hell's wrong with you, Bakura? Chill out." demanded Marik, looking at him in the mirror while doing his own make up.

"This is the first time I've been able to perform in a while. And Ryou will be here! I have to make a good... 'first' impression." he replied to his bass guitarist.

"Oh, right. I forgot." smiled Yami, the keyboardist, pianist, and operator of synthesizers. "Well, just relax, alright? You two will be drilling again before you know it."

Bakura sighed. None of his friends really seemed to understand that he truly was deeply, madly in love with Ryou, and it wasn't just for the sex.

"So what's tonight's road map, Bakura?" asked Seto, the percussionist, quietly, applying his dark red mascara.

"We'll start off with 'Home', 'Bring Me to Life' and 'Whisper.' We're ending with 'Stellar' tonight, and that's my tribute to Ryou. It was our song before the accident. Anyway, you three can pick whatever you want before that."

Bakura and Marik happily walked out onto the stage from the left, while Yami and Seto came in from the right. Thousands of fans were cheering for the band. The lead vocalist picked up the microphone and began to request silence. "Hello, DOMINO! Have you missed us?"

The fans screamed unbearably loud, some jumping up and down, others shaking their fists in the air, all in response to Bakura.

"We're glad that we've gotten to stay home for a while. So, this concert is dedicated to our awesome city, Domino. And since our single's been so popular lately, that's how we're starting off tonight."

The opening guitar duet began to play in Bakura and Marik's hands. The vocalist's dark eyes scanned the audience, and located a certain white-haired boy.

He began to sing the words as the bass and percussion joined in. "**Shine, lake of fire. . .**"

Eventually, about an hour later, The Sleep arrived at the song they had been waiting to perform all night long: "Stellar."

Bakura took the microphone in his hands. "Thanks for being such an awesome audience tonight. We want to end this night with our version of the song 'Stellar' which was originally sung by Incubus."

The crowd roared like wild unruly animals.

"And I'm dedicating this song to someone I love very, very much. You may not know who you are, but I love you, and I always will."

As the quiet guitar opening began to play, Bakura closed his eyes briefly, then searched for Ryou in the enormous crowd.

There, in the third row from the front, he could see his boyfriend--er, ex-boyfriend--looking back at him intently.

From Ryou's point of view, he didn't understand why Bakura kept looking at him. The stare made him feel so warm inside, yet it caused him to shiver. He couldn't figure it out. Why was it making him feel the way he did? His eyes never left Bakura's. He was connecting with him-- someway, somehow.

And in the back of his mind, he was one hundred percent sure that some time in his past, before the car wreck, he had felt this way before. And it was definitely when he was thinking about Bakura, or when he was near him.

And despite his amnesia, he still knew the words to Stellar, and he sang them with his rock star idol.

_**Meet me in outer space.**_

_**We could spend the night... watch the earth come up.**_

_**I've grown tired of that place; won't you come with me?**_

_**We could start again...**_

_**How do you do it?**_

_**Make me feel like I do.**_

_**How do you do it?**_

_**It's better than I ever knew.**_

_**How do you do it?**_

_**Make me feel like I do.**_

_**Meet me in outer space!**_

_**I will hold you close, if you're afraid of heights**_

_**I need you to see this place: it might be the only way**_

_**That I can show you how**_

_**It feels to be inside of you...**_

_**How do you do it?**_

_**Make me feel like I do.**_

_**How do you do it?**_

_**It's better than I ever knew.**_

_**How do you do it?**_

_**Make me feel like I do...**_

_**You are Stellar...**_

After the concert, Ryou decided to make use of the backstage pass Bakura had given to him.

A security officer blocked his way. "No admittance, kid."

"No way! Bakura gave me a backstage pass."

"Not that excuse. That pass is fake. There were no backstage passes made for this concert."

A tall figure pushed him aside from behind. "No, dude, I gave him one. It's okay." Bakura's dark eyes met Ryou's once again, and the smaller teen got a deep, to-the-bone chill. "Thanks for showing up. You wanna come take a look around?"

"Sure, that would be great!" he smiled for the first time in a while. It was like the song. How did he do it? Was there something from the past that he didn't know about? There had to be. There was just simply no other explanation for this sensation that kept coming over him. And Bakura's muscular, sexy figure was starting to make Ryou want to giggle, which was very difficult to suppress.

Bakura linked his arm in Ryou's, and when Ryou gave him a questioning gaze, the vocalist laughed. "It's just an arm, man. Don't sue more for harassment or anything. It's just easy to get lost back here, and that would suck if you did, right?" Ryou nodded in response. It was meant to be rhetorical, but he felt obligated to answer this rock star's question, whether they were meant to be answered or not.

"So, anyway. This is our dressing room." He pointed to the door he stood in front of. It had a bright gold star with a special name plate reading: "THE SLEEP." He beamed proudly. "The entire stadium, this whole big arena, was built by our fans, friends and family. They pitched their money in and created this. Everything here is legal property of me, Marik, Yami, Seto, or our producer/manager. This is where we perform all of our in-town concerts, and we will for a long time. Eventually, things here will be moved and changed, and be re-customized for another band. But until then, we're having lots of fun. This is literally our second home. Marik's already gone to sleep here for the night."

"I hope you keep playing here. You four are awesome. Especially your voice. It's. . ." he paused, then smiled softly. "Stellar."

Bakura chuckled and grinned. "Why, thank you. I appreciate you accepting my offer to come. I hope to see you at my concerts as well." There was a brief paused, then the band member blinked a few times. "Oh, right. Sorry, I kind of dazed off. Anyway, I'll show you inside." He opened the door and held it open for Ryou, as if he was a young lady. "Welcome."

The fanatic stood a little past the doorway agape. He was just utterly amazed. After all, he'd never been inside a superstar's dressing room, and he had no idea what to expect.

It was a huge basic square-shaped room with a vanity table and large mirror in each corner which was arranged for each member of The Sleep. Along one wall, there was a saloon to prepare their hair before a show, apparently. Opposite of that wall, there was a long (rather comfy) sofa. Then, there was a door from each wall going off separately: one on the left, one on the right, and two on the back. He wasn't quite sure what those were for, but he would be sure to ask about it.

The singer was amused by Ryou's obvious shock. "Ha ha. . .you like?" One by one, he explained the contents of the room, including the doors, which he explained led off to some small bedrooms. "Like I said, Marik's asleep already, so stay kind of quiet. Anyway, I share a room with him, and then Yami sleeps on the left and Seto sleeps on the right.

After he showed his intrigued fan around the rest of backstage, he stopped. "Well, that's pretty much everything."

Ryou softly put his hands on Bakura's shoulders and turned him to face him.

The movement hit Bakura like a wave of electricity. It reminded him of those deep, passionate nights where Ryou would knock his lover to the floor and dominate him. And while Bakura knew the difference between now and then, the gesture reminded him too much of foreplay. Impulsively and with little control, he slung his left arm around the small boy's waist, and swung him around underneath him, leaning in to kiss him.

"Wh-what are. . ." stuttered Ryou.

Bakura's lips were oh so close to Ryou's, but realizing his mistake, he stopped himself. _You can't do this, Bakura. Not yet. It'll ruin your entire plan. _He immediately let go of the fan and turned away, blushing.

There was a long silence. He'd forgotten how patient Ryou was.

"G-gomen. I saw something in your teeth. I-I just wanted a closer look. Gomen."

"Hmmm? Oh, it's okay." he giggled despite his own embarrassment. "That tends to happen to me sometimes. It's alright."

Soon after, the two said their good-byes and walked their separate ways: Ryou to his car, Bakura to him room.

The second of the two almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a voice suddenly say, "I saw everything." with smug laughter. "You can't control your sexual desires at all, Bakura."

"It isn't sexual. I just miss being with him, and being able to express my love for him. I have to get him back."

"And you will. Relax. I know you will, and Seto, Marik and I plan to help you, too." he clapsed his own hand on Bakura's.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it."

The two said their farewells, and the two split into their own rooms.

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	3. Congratulations

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 03: Congratulations  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

As Bakura's watch alarm beeped annoyingly, it signified that it was noon. He looked up at the sky with a smirk, leaning against a metal streetlight pole. Heat bore down on him, but it hardly was a bother to him. He did not really care as long as he saw the person he was meeting up with today.

He saw a familiar face and tilted his black sunglasses slightly, the sun creating a bright glare on the lenses. Bakura really hoped that the approaching Ryou would recognize him with his hair in a thick, messy ponytail and wearing sunglasses.

Before the rock star could even say a simple "hello", he was nearly suffocated with a tight, tight hug around the neck. He flinched slightly, not used to the feeling of being touched, but soon melted into it.

_Dear god, Bakura, have a little self control!_ his conscience had to scream at the older teen, as he had been close to reaching for Ryou's vulnerable ass. However, he did allow himself to respond to the embrace with his left arm, lightly hugging him back. "God damn, you're affectionate." he laughed when Ryou pulled away with embarassment. "Don't worry, it's nothing to be embarassed about. I get that all the time from my fans."

_That's why it's so embarassing, Bakura-sam,_ the fan thought, a bit dismayed.

"So," he said slowly. "Where are we going? It's your choice."

Ryou was pleased with Bakura's good manners, but admitted to himself that he hated picking places to go to. "I don't know, Bakura-sama. Wherever you want to go."

Bakura laughed again and winked at his nervous admirer. "Heh, you make it sound like I'm some chick. And don't add the damn '-sama'. I'm not a god or anything."

"Yes you are, Bakura-s--Bakura." Ryou corrected himself. "But if you really want me to, fine, I'll just call you Bakura."

Ryou sat at the small red table, elbows propped on it and gazing intently into Bakura's dark chocolate eyes (which were now visible due to him removing his sunglasses). He was so crazed for Bakura and his talent that it even freaked himself out. _Everyone has their weaknesses, I suppose._ Even something as simple as listening to Bakura talk was so intriguing to Ryou.

". . .fangirls flock around me so much that I have to wear these dumb disguises to avoid getting bombarded by them. Once I had to dye my hair pink for the day, cut it up to my shoulders, and wear sheets and pads to make myself look fat."

"Whoa, that's heavy." said Ryou, chuckling at the image of the rock star to have pink hair and a chubby, flabby body. He certainly knew his body was quite refined. "So that's why you're disguised now?"

"Yup," the older replied with a wistful sigh. "the career has so many sacrifices and compromises to make, but in the end, it's really very rewarding. Besides, our group isn't quite as hot as it used to be, so the fans don't bother me as often.

"Congratulations on winning the contest, by the way." he remarked, changing subjects. He was referring to the radio contest that Ryou had won for guessing the correct song being played without lyrics. The prize was a day to spend with any member of The Sleep, and it was apparent who he'd chosen. "I really wouldn't have had it any other way. I've been fascinated about getting to know you better as it is." Bakura tried his best to make up stuff about just getting to know Ryou and have Ryou believe him. He was not always the best liar. But the adoring fanboy seemed to be taking it all in and not even questioning him for a moment.

A waitress came by their table and placed two sundaes on it. One for each teen. She eyed Bakura for a few moments, then hastily turned her head and strode off. She even appeared to be shaking. "That was a fangirl, I'll bet." said Ryou, giggling childishly.

"You'd win that bet. Let's try to eat these things soon so we can get the hell out of here fast."

The light hum and buzz of people talking in the restaurant steadily grew louder and louder, yet in a more whispery way. People were looking at each other and exchanging hissing questions. Bakura became a bit paler as the restaurant slowly lifted up into an uproar. He glared at the waitress, for he was positive she was the one who blabbed his identity to everyone.

He ended up realizing that they would not be finishing up their ice cream today, that was for sure.

Being experienced and knowing what was going on, he immediately stood up and gently grabbed Ryou by the wrist. "C'mon, let's go," he whispered in his ear. "If I wait any longer, I'll be a trophy in some obsessor's house. Let's get out of here."

Ryou did not dare disobey his idol, so he quickly stood up himself and rushed out the transparent door, a bell ringing as they exited.

"Walk faster, Ryou," Bakura said with a raised tone, seeing a huge group of people leave the restaurant shortly after they did. Both men could hear and sense Bakura's nervousness in his voice and movements.

The faster the two boys walked, the faster the crowd walked. They were just on the borderline of a run. "Holy crap! Is this legal, Bakura?" muttered Ryou so no one else would hear him.

"Technically, no, but no action is ever taken." he replied, obviously more focused on escaping the fans, all of which were wild female teeny-boppers. He took a sharp right into a back alley, where he hoped the fans would be dumb enough to lose him.

Unfortunately, they were not.

_How do I get rid of these psychos? Especially backed into an alley, completely surrounded. And with Ryou here. . ._ he stopped his thought. The girls were fans of _him_, and the best possible way he could think of getting them to give up on him was simple. Show them his gay side. _Okay, okay. I have an excuse to kiss him this time._ Calmly, he turned back to face the teenage girls, who were shrieking excitedly and trying their hardest to get to Bakura. "Go away, you stupid fucking sluts!" he screamed out at the top of his lungs, breaking the uproar of girly screams. His shout pierced through the noise and created silence.

"Go away." he said in a softer, more mellow tone. "I do not want to see you. Beat it. I want to be alone with my Yo-chan. We just want to be alone. Right, koibito?" He pinned Ryou against the brick wall with both hands on either side of his body, and he quickly sweeped in, joining his own lips with his.

Ryou was shocked at the action, but definitely did not complain. Despite his atheism, he still was thanking every god in question that could be out there. Aphrodite, Hathor, and God were a few. He had always been too shy to put this kind of move on Bakura, but right now he knew that he desperately needed him to play and act along.

If this was "acting", then Ryou was a pretty skilled "actor". He slung his arms around Bakura's neck and held him closer, kissing him back fiercely. Deep down he was a bit afraid of going overboard and making him mad, but he was going on instinct that Bakura did not mind.

Bakura continued to kiss Ryou, unleashing his passion for him with absolutely no restrictions. There were shocked gasps from fans in the background, and more whispering. The star smirked at heart, not only satisfied with lip-locking with Ryou, but also that he was able to baffle and astound all those women who had thought they knew him so well. Within a few seconds, he heard frequent "_click_"_s_ and could see bright flashes, even though his eyes were closed. Dear god, were they seriously taking pictures?

Suddenly, reporters wearing derby hats ran up to flock around Bakura, practically sticking microphones in the two boys' faces as they kissed each other. They were slammed with many questions at once.

"Bakura, are you experimenting with a boy-on-boy relationship, or are you really gay?"

"How long have you been with 'Yo-chan'? Is he a long-term friend?"

"Do you really love Ryou, or are you just experimenting?"

"Is this Ryou a celebrity as well?"

However, the two completely ignored the questions and continued their kiss, stopping only for air, then resuming once again.

A tall tan-skinned figure with spiky blonde hair roughly shoved past the crowd. Marik stared incredulously at Bakura's displayed actions, not yet catching onto the plan he had set. He quickly shrugged it off, however, and gave death glares to the fans and crazed reporters. "Didn't you hear him? Get the hell out of here, stalkers! Yea, that's right, go home and watch some MTV, now! Beat it!" He continued to pierce eyes with his cold glare, and finally using force by shoving away the crowd. Which was pretty easy for him to do since he was extremely strong.

As the last person remaining turned the corner and vanished, Bakura watching from the corner of his eye. When they were gone, the older finally broke away from the kiss and held up Ryou, who was breathless, against the wall. Marik turned around and kicked Bakura in the head, causing him to practically fall over.

"Hey!" the white haired singer shouted in protest. "What the hell was that for!"

"What the hell was _that_ for?" demanded Marik, pointing to Ryou. "Are you crazy? You have no control, you're about to ruin your entire--" He was about to finish the sentence with "plan", but Bakura did not want him blabbing out the word. He did not want Ryou to start asking questions. It was too early.

Bakura interrupted before Marik could finish. "--reputation? Nahhh. You know how much girls love gay guys, anyway. They'll be ecstatic."

Marik eyed him suspiciously. It was apparent that he hadn't yet caught on to Bakura's shadiness. _Boy, he really is the slow one,_ thought the lead singer.

Bakura was attacked with yet another hug courtesy of Ryou. He smiled and gladly returned it, but then sighed with a hint of disappointment. He did not want Ryou to go home yet. He wanted to hang out with him some more. "I wish we could have gone and done some more stuff, man. You really seem to be a cool guy and all. Hell, you didn't even mind me kissing you! Sorry about that, by the way. Especially with my tongue and everything. Gomen nasai, I was just trying to make it look believable."

Ryou laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Ah heh, yea. Anything to help you. Well, I'm sorry to leave kind of early on our hangout deal, but I promised my parents I'd be home by mid-afternoon curfew."

Parents.

Parents. _Parents._

The word echoed so fully and repetetively in Bakura's mind that he'd barely heard the rest of the sentence. After "parents", the only word he could think of was, _Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit._ He tried his best to keep a relaxed expression and not to freak out.

Ryou hugged him one more time. But Bakura was too stunned to hug him back, or even move. The innocent fan was in too much bliss to even realize Bakura's sudden fear and stiffness. Just as he was walking toward his front door to go inside, Bakura reached forward and softly grabbed his shoulder, stopping the boy in his tracks.

"Listen." he said slowly, cautiously. "Don't tell your parents about. . .Well, today. Especially the kiss. Your rents seem really uptight and religious, and if they found out you and I kissed, even acting, they'll freak out."

The younger nodded. "Dont worry, Kura. I won't tell a soul!" he replied brightly before taking out a Sharpie marker and writing his phone number down on Bakura's hand. "Call me sometime if you want to hang out again. Bye-bye!" He was grinning ear-to-ear as he reluctantly shut the screen door, and then the main door.

Bakura's heart sank dreadfully low. He felt like he would puke. Ryou was feeling great, hunky-dory, and he was feeling like a complete wreck.

Ryou's parents were very informed. What would happen when they picked up _People Magazine_ and the front cover story was about their son and himself being in an intimate relationship? This was sure to be all over the youth media very, very soon. What would happen to him then? Or worse, what would happen to Ryou?

He shuddered just thinking about it. _Brace yourself, Bakura. It's all just little bumps in the road through your plan._

_

* * *

_

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please.


	4. On the front Page

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 04: On the Front Page  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

_Subject: Bakura Ryou_

_Last Saturday, Bakura Ryou (lead singer of hit rock band _"_The Sleep_"_) shocked a mob of fans when he was seen lip-locking with a teen that was likely several years younger than him. What was really the big surprise is that this teen is a male! _

_After being spotted and pointed out by an entusiastic waitress at a local diner in Domino, Japan, Bakura was chased from the building along with the man who had been joining him for lunch. They turned into an alley and shouted at the fans to leave at once. That struck everyone as bizzare, for it's always been shown and said that Bakura loves his fans. After calming down a bit, he explained that he wanted to be alone with _"_his Yo-chan._"

_As the photograph to the left displays, he shamelessly kissed what could be his boyfriend in front of the huge flock of female admirers. It wasn_'_t long before journalists were swarming them for answers. However, Bakura ignored the unwanted attention and refused to answer questions._

_Marik Ishtar (Bakura_'_s best friend and bass guitarist for "The Sleep") hastily stepped in past the huge commotion and eventually shooed away the swarm. Before that, though, this reporter quickly noticed something. When Marik had reached the front, his expression had shown about as much shock as the fans. Then again, for every pair of best friends, there_'_s always _one_ secret._

_Many inferences have already been made. One of them is an accusation that Bakura_'_s been so terrible with the ladies lately that he_'_s resorted to homosexuality. Of course, we_'_re sure that isn_'_t true, Bakura!_

_- Written by reporter Aiza Takashi_

Next to the article and underneath the photograph, there was a small, bold-print caption that read:

"**_Bakura Ryou and _'_Yo-chan_'_ share a passionate kiss in front of baffled fanatics._"**

Mr. Bakura furiously threw the magazine down on the table as soon as he finished reading it. On the next page to the right, it showed some people's opinions--most of them fans of Bakura's band. But Ryou's father could not bear to read anymore material out loud to his wife.

The two looked at each other. A long silence was about them, until Mrs. Bakura finally said something. "How could we have forgotten about Bakura's insane musician career? It was as obvious as his alchoholism, or his homosexuality, or--"

"It doesn't matter," cut off Mr. Bakura, who paused briefly to sip some coffee out of his mug. "Even if we had remembered, them meeting again was something almost completely out of our control. He's a star. He's famous absolutely everywhere. He _is_ everywhere."

"But I still thought the kid was smart enough to heed our words to stay away from our son." persisted Ryou's mother.

"Well, the good thing is that _because_ Bakura is a star, he's never safe from the spotlight. The most elaborate disguises couldn't help him last Saturday. If this 'relationship' with Bakura continues, we'll sure as hell know about it. . ."

His voice trailed off as he heard the distant front door open and close. "I'm home!" cried Ryou happily, setting his school bookbags down in the hardwood floor of the foyer. The two parents looked at each other, nodded softly, and called their son.

"Ryou! Could you come here, please?"

"You can handle this. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Mrs. Bakura walked into their bedroom and shut the door behind her.

Ryou quirked an eyebrow at his father, confused about what they were whispered about, or why his mother left. "Tou? What's going on?" he asked in a very worried, nervous tone.

Mr. Bakura looked at his son. He noticed that Ryou really didn't seem to understand what was going on. "Son, are there any relationships that maybe you forgot to mention to your mom or me?"

The boy didn't respond for a while, for he was lost in thought. What on earth were they talking about? Slowly, he answered, "No."

The father sighed. "Tell me, son. Are you. . ." He wasn't sure if this was the right way to approach this. "Are you gay?"

Ryou drew his breath in. Had the articles about Bakura and him "going out" reached the public _already_? _Oh no... Bakura_'_s going to be so mad at me._ He shuddered at having his idol hating him.

"Ryou, we know about your relationship with Bakura Ryou. Homosexuality is an outrage. There's no excuse for it. It's corrupting your mind and your schoolwork. We don't think you should see him anymore."

The teen narrowed his eyes, clearly irritated. This was one of those few times he'd actually sass his parents. "An outrage? How insensitive can you be? I'm only your son." Ryou was too pissed off to even bother showing Mr. Bakura his perfect passing grades.

"Let me rephrase, Ryou. We don't want you to see him anymore."

He groaned and plopped backwards onto the brown leather sofa. After a half-second, he sighed, reminding himself to keep his cool. "Gah! We're not even dating, Tou. Seriously. We're not. Some fangirls were chasing him, so we kissed to make it look like he was gay so they'd quit stalking him all the time. The press bought it, but we'd forgotten about the media."

Mr. Bakura glared at his son icily. "You're a liar. That kid's hanging out with the wrong crowd, and he's fooling you and taking advantage of you. You're not seeing him anymore."

"'Kura would never take advantage of me!"

"You hardly know the guy."

"I know him better than you."

"I swear to god, Ryou, he's using you. And he's going to ruin your entire life and reputation if you don't get out now."

Ryou stood back up and had to clench his fists to avoid using them on his dad. "How do you know? The only reputation you're worrying about is your own! And mom's. You couldn't care less about my happiness. If you did, you'd let me do what I want to do. You don't love me, you love yourselves!"

That struck a nerve in Mr. Bakura. He reached forward with both hands and roughly shoved his son to the floor. Ryou's head slammed backwards against the hard floorboards, and he sat back up, holding his head tightly. He whimpered and curled into practically a fetal position.

"Shut up. I'm your father, and in this house, what I say goes."

Tears were in the teen's eyes from the throbbing pain in the back of his head. _What kind of parents do I have? Were they like this before the car wreck?_

His father sharply kicked him in the ribs quite a few times. "Is that clear?"

Ryou was crying out from pain and begging for mercy as he flinched. "Aauugh! Awh! Stop! Stop it!" But the more he begged, the rougher his so-called "father" got with him. Harder, harder, and harder. Gradually more agony with each strike.

Once he snatched his head up by the thick white hair and slammed it back against the floor again. So hard that small threads of blood were running from the poor boy's scalp. The wind was so knocked out of him by now that he couldn't scream for help or even breathe steadily. Ryou would continue to hold his head, trying to cushion the horrible throbbing _tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump_ sound that was pounding in his ears.

With his free hand, he would make a weak attempt at grabbing the man's ankles, trying whatever he possibly could to stop his father. However, whenever he was able to grip Mr. Bakura's legs, he'd just shake the hand off and stomp on the fingers until he lost the feeling in them. Red fluid leaked through his once pure white hair. Hot blood was tickling and trickling down Ryou's face, mixing in with his large, heavy streams of tears.

_I can_'_t believe this is happening._ he kept telling himself through sobs. _It_'_s not. This isn_'_t happening. This is a nightmare. An illusion. A really bad, sick joke. This isn_'_t real, Ryou; this is all a lie. It_'_s not true. Don_'_t believe it, Ryou, not for a second. They_'_re tricking you._ A variety of mantras went through Ryou's mind, but deep down, he knew they wouldn't save him from anything. And they wouldn't give any comfort or escape at all. He trembled. He felt so small, insignificant. Powerless, helpless. _Help me, Bakura, please. Help me. . ._

_How do I know him? Thinking of him eases my pain. I know I know him from somewhere before that day in the park. I just know it. Just his name warms my fears and scares them away. But _'_Kura can't help me now._ He feebly would start to crawl away from Mr. Bakura, but then the man would just yank his hair and pull him back into place. Ryou had once learned a tactic for saving himself when someone was pulling his hair, but his head was too banged up to remember or even think of anything much else other than pain. The pain, and Bakura.

_Tou and Kaa have always been like this,_ he admitted at last. He opened his mouth widely to try and take in as much air as possible, but his father simply wouldn't cut him a break. _Tou has always hit me, hurt me, abused me, yet I have this sense of rememberence that before the wreck, I always had someone to comfort me and help get me through it. He protected me when I needed it most, and even when I _didn't _need it. That, I finally know. I finally know why he_'_s so familiar to me. It doesn_'_t matter what our relationship was: family, friend, or more. He saved me from my parents when I was in danger. That is how I know _'_Kura. I remember, I finally remember._

'_Kura-sama, I love you..._

---

Simply put, Ryou felt like complete, utter hell the next morning. He couldn't even remember anything before getting knocked to the floor by his father. Even the thoughts from the previous night.

He wasn't sure how he would explain all these cuts, scrapes and bruises. He knew that while he could get the dried blood off of his skin, he couldn't eliminate the huge black eyes and marks all down his body. Clothes would only cover up so much, and Ryou couldn't even think of a spot on himself that wasn't damaged.

Sure, he'd tried everything to hide his skin from others. He'd resorted to using his mother's fleshtone concealer, but it was too thick. He ran into people and got touched all the time. The concealer would eventually rub off, and even if it didn't, he'd still have to hold back his cries of pain whenever someone even lightly poked him.

But all of that seemed so miniscule at the moment. His parents ordered him to stop hanging out with Bakura.

_But how can I? He_'_s a rock star. He_'_s everywhere. How can I not be with him or see him again, especially now that I_'_ve warmed up to him?_ he reflected in distress, his walking pace quickening.

When he finally looked up, he slowed to a stop and stared at the serene, usually rowdy stadium. Dismayed, he sighed and strode stoftly to the secret back entrance. Fearlessly, he opened the door and saw Bakura sitting on his bed, staring at him. "Ryou," he began, but he didn't know what to say.

"They called you, didn't they?" asked his fan, angered at the thought of his parents contacting 'Kura. The star, however, said nothing, so Ryou continued. "Damn them. I don't want to be separated from you just because everyone thinks we're in a homosexual relationship. Even if we were, what's wrong with that? Why is that so bad?" He began to speak in frustrated huffs. Ryou was deeply and truly hurt by his parents' reaction when they thought their son was gay.

_If you really love someone, why should it matter? Why should it make a difference if he_'_s a guy or girl? Or if I_'_m a guy or girl? Why can_'_t they love me anyway?_ the thoughts ached him to the bone.

Bakura did not answer him. Just gazed at him. He explained to himself that he didn't want to speak. He wanted to hear Ryou get his feelings out first. It would help them both calm down if he got rid of some of their anger.

"Do _you_ think gender matters, 'Kura?" Another thick lull. "Are you really going to let something so trivial and stupid separate us? Do you really not care if you can't hang out with me anymore!"

Finally, Bakura felt the need to speak. "Of course, you are right," he said. "It's ridiculous. It's unfair and cruel. You're a cool, awesome guy, and I have fun with you and everything. But this isn't really about what I want or believe."

"Of course it is!" snapped Ryou. "This has everything to do with you."

"But I am _choosing_," the vocalist retorted with a slightly raised voice, "to leave myself out of this. For your sake. I see the black eyes, the bruises, scrapes, cuts. Don't think I don't see them. Your parents are very religious and intolerant of diversity. It is their beliefs, and mere words can't change them. The only way for them to come to their senses is to come across this discovery by themselves. But, you don't need to suffer and be hurt because of me any longer. You'll die someday if your parents continue to beat you. Call the police. Tell a neighbor or friend. Talk to someone, as long as you don't just let this shit slide. I'm tired of being the cause of your hurt. So, for right now, I am choosing to say good-bye."

Ryou stared at his idol in disbelief for a few moments before lowering his head in despair. "I see. I never thought of you as the type to give up." He muttered angrily. Just as the night before when he was arguing with his dad, he clenched his fist and shook with distemper. "Fine then, you can live the rest of your life that way. By running away every time a challenge comes your way. Later, 'Kura-sama. Or not." Having not have even walked into the room, he reached for the door and slammed it shut, running away with teary eyes.

A small vehicle waited for him at the curb of the lonely pick-up drive. Behind the wheel were Ryou's parents, who rolled down the window when they saw their son approaching. "So, did you call it quits with Bakura?" hounded Mrs. Bakura almost instantaneously.

"No," answered the teen. "_He_ called it quits with _me_."

---

His love's words echoed through his head unmercifully.

"_. . .I never thought of you as the type to give up. . ."_

"_. . .running away every time a challenge comes your way. . ."_

"_Later, 'Kura-sama. Or not." _

_You really have no idea, Ryou. I_'_m not giving up. I'm not running away from challenges. And this isn_'_t the last time I_'_ll see you._ he sighed, taking out a cigarette, popped it into his mouth, and lit it. The occasional smoke helped him clear stress without causing an addiction. _I_'_m not afraid of your parents or anyone else who disapproves. I don_'_t give a fuck what they think, and neither do you. Neither of us take shit from anyone. You see? We were made for each other, whether you realize it or not. _Bakura exhaled light gray smoke. _But even when I know this, the last thing I_'_d ever want is to hurt or upset you._

Rewinding his memory to not too long ago, he began to imagine the whole phone conversation over again. Ryou was right. His parents had called him. They said the nastiest, most horrible things to him. After all he'd been through as a child, he hated for Ryou to go through equally painful experiences. Ryou's parents were dangerous and downright sadists. He and Bakura both knew it, and if Ryou didn't tell the police on them soon, someone would. He couldn't bear the image that came to mind when he pictured Ryou being abused by those dispicable people.

At the moment, he was just at a loss of control. He'd still regain it soon. He always did, after all.

The same tall figure that had shoved past the crowd on Saturday shoved past the front door of the bedroom. He ran a tan hand through his spiky hair and frowned at the sight of his best friend, who was sitting on his bed in tears. _Dammit, Bakura. This kid really means a lot to you,_ mused Marik, who sat down next to said singer in hopes of comforting him. The only problem was that he wasn't the greatest at making people feeling better. He never knew what to say.

He embraced him with one arm and lightly brought his head to rest sideways on his shoulder. "I heard all of it." he said with little emotion. "I'm really sorry, man. I don't really know what to tell you, except that you shouldn't worry. You're a really smart dude, y'know? No adult could ever outwit you, especially not those braindead phobes."

"Thanks, Marik." he replied just as plainly to his bass player, his small tears now diminishing. "But if Ryou hates me now, that kind of interferes with my plan of getting back together with him."

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	5. Separated?

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 05: Separated?  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Bakura gave an amused laugh and crossed his legs, adjusting his position on the bar stool on which he was sitting. Normally, he'd be more distressed in the situation he was in. Ryou was currently forced to stay away from him. And something as simple as that for a long enough amount of time could strip Bakura of his sanity.

However, he'd consumed about three bottles of beer, and like smoking, drinking always put his mind at a bit more ease. Even so, that did not necessarily mean he was drunk. It took a _very_ long time and a _very_ large amount of alchohol to intoxicate him or even make him sick. An immunity, he supposed.

But what he'd been laughing at was some incredibly obnoxious customer near the other end of the counter.

"Whaaaaaat! Whaddya mean?" the stranger shouted over the banging loud music. He was obviously completely wasted.

The bartender stared at the stranger with wide eyes. "I'm sorry, hon, I really think you've had enough."

The stranger pounded his fist on the counter, shaking other glasses and bottles. "Well, I didn't ever ask fer your opinion, lady. . ." He hung his head dizzily.

Bakura didn't actually see "the stranger" as a stranger, for he actually already recognized who he was. It was none other than Ryou, coming to a bar out of frustration at his parents. On any other occasion, Bakura would have rushed over to Ryou in a heartbeat and embrace him, but he was actually frowning faintly at the sight of his ex-lover drunk. In the past, it was so extremely rare that the younger boy ever got this carried away. Alas, in the past, Bakura was around to kind of watch his back. Without him, his judgement tended to slowly become impaired. The behavior wasn't funny anymore: it was worrysome.

"L'sten, 'm perfctly sob'r!" he yelled, pointing to himself.

_Poor guy. Not only will he feel like hell tomorrow, he's making a total and complete ass of himself._ Bakura was much too sympathetic with the guy he cared about to let things go on like this. _I'd better go help him before he does anything else_ _stupid._ He hopped off of the stool and made his way over to Ryou, who was now standing on his own stool and speaking louder, trying to prove his point.

Ryou felt the seat tip out from underneath him and hit the floor with a hard _thud_. But when he looked beneath him, he realized he'd actually landed on someone. "Sooooorry." he mumbled, rubbing his head due to the headache that was coming on. "'Ey, you look familiar, white-hair man. Do I know ya?"

The combination of Ryou and intoxication was (to say the least) odd, and even a bit scary. Blinking, Bakura said, "Yea, Ryou. I'm Bakura. From 'The Sleep.' Remember?"

"KURA-KUN!" replied the fanatic immediately. "M'love! I'misst ya!" Quickly, he held the singer's face in his hands and kissed him.

Bakura just gazed dumbly at Ryou's face, then eventually returned the kiss, snaking his hand behind the other male's neck. The lip-lock ended shortly, and the rock star took his fan's head and turned it in order to whisper something to him. "Listen to me, Yo-chan. You love me, right?" He knew Ryou couldn't possibly love him yet, but he also knew that people's thoughts were exaggerated when they were drunk, and Ryou definitely wasn't sober.

"O'course I do, 'Kura-kun!"

"Then please listen to me. Listen to me carefully, okay? Please don't drink another drop of anything other than water. The after effects of all the alchohol you drank is really going to make you sick by the end of the night. It will make you miserable. So please don't drink any more tonight."

Ryou pouted. "Awwww, I'was having s'much fun, too. But if 'Kura-kun wants me t' stop, then'll stop."

Bakura smiled. So the drinks hadn't changed him at heart: he was still obedient and loyal to him. "If you're still feeling well enough, we can dance some. Just stay close to me and tell me if you need to go home or if you start feeling bad again."

Ryou stumbled to his feet, removing himself from Bakura's warm body, and reached down with intentions to help the other teen up. "N'vermin' that! Less' jus' have fun, 'Kura!"

---

The two had danced for so long that they'd lost track of time and their legs hurt with exhaustion. "Time to go hooooome!" gushed Ryou excitedly in a sing-song type of voice. (Unfortunately for Bakura, the drunkenness had not yet passed.)

But his counterpart only winced and shuddered. It freaked him out to think of his parents' reaction. Ryou coming home completely wasted? Underage? At 2:30 in the morning? With Bakura escorting him home? Bakura was deeply frightened at the thought of what his sadist parents would do to him when they found out about this night.

Gradually, a grin came to the older one's face, and he turned to Ryou. "We're going to play a game, Ryou. It's called 'Keep Away.' You are keeping away from your house and family tonight and shacking up with me. It'll be fun! But remember, you only win the game if you keep all of tonight a secret, so don't tell your parents about tonight, the bar, anything."

"You're s'much fun, 'Kura-kun! I love you!" he squeezed Bakura's arm affectionately.

_His parents will still be mad at him for not coming home tonight, but he can just tell them that he got stuck somewhere, and he slept over at a friend's, or something._

When they arrived at the back entrance to the vocalist's home, Bakura felt the smaller teen ungracefully leap onto his back, knocking the two of them down onto the nearest bed. Unfortunately, the nearest bed was Marik's, and the owner of this bed was already sleeping in it.

As Bakura and Ryou crashed to the bed atop a pair of legs, Marik cried out in irritated pain. "Gah! What the fuck. . ." Drowsily rubbing his eyes, he sat upright now and stared at the two boys. There was an uncomfortably long lull before he spoke again. "Bakura, if you're gonna be that direct, then at least do it your own bed, not right on top of me. If stupid shit like this keeps happening, I swear, you and Yami are switching rooms. Seriously, can't you even wait a few more steps to get to your own bed? Good Ra." Of course, Marik being Marik, it was common for him to misinterpret things like this.

Ryou had killed too many brain cells to remember anything about who this dude was. _He better not be 'Kura-kun's boyfriend!_ he thought dramatically. Clinging to Bakura's button-down collar shirt, he tugged lightly at it and whispered into the older's ear: "'Kura-kun... who'ziss? Another man? Oh, pleas' say it izznt so!"

The fan's warm breath on his ear caused the blood to rush to Bakura's head, and he reached a hand up to lightly stroke the fan's hair. "Of course not, Yo-chan," he whispered to him with a confident smile. "I love you and only you."

"Thass'--yer s'sweet!" exclaimed Ryou, touched tears coming to his eyes. "Waaaahhhh! I love you too, 'Kura-kun!" He embraced Bakura and kissed him, tongue-and-all, bringing a tinge of alchohol taste into the rock star's cold mouth.

Marik heaved a sigh, got out of his bed, picked up his pillow, and trudged into the other room. _Damn, Bakura_'_s my best friend, but at least there_'_s a good aspect to the whole band thing ending eventually. I won_'_t have to deal with those two all night._

Ryou and Bakura paid no notice. Bakura smirked as Ryou pinned him down to the bed. "I' dun care 'bout size er strength. 'M havin' my way with you." he murmured, beginning to remove Bakura's shirt, and Bakura having absolutely no objections.

Ryou kissed Bakura on the cheek, then slowly crept down to his lips, where he gave him another beer-tasting kiss. The smaller of the two lifted his hips up slightly so he could reach Bakura's pantsline, which was beneath him. After eagerly unbuttoning and unzipping Bakura's jeans, he easily slid them off of his muscular legs.

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	6. Liar, Liar

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 06: Liar, Liar  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Ryou felt terrible from head to toe when he awoke the next morning.

His head pounded due to a massive headache and he felt light-headed; he found himself dizzy just trying to look from left to right too fast. Then, his stomach felt ill. Excruciatingly sick. His muscles were exhausted, and he wasn't even sure if he could make it to the bathroom to puke. Wait. Where was the bathroom? Where was he? It didn't stop there, either. He couldn't remember anything. Just noises. Screaming, moaning, panting, and gasping.

_Oh, god... don't tell me _that_ is what I was doing last night..._

Well, it certainly would explain his aching mouth. The back sides of his jaws felt misaligned, jerked, out of place, and sore. As if they'd been in a relatively _awkward_ and _unnatural_ position.

He sighed, distraught. _Well, it's not like I'm ever lucky enough to remember something great, anyway._ He referred not only to the night before, where all he could recall were sounds. But also to every little detail before the accident. Something about that past that his parents practically just dropped in his lap, it didn't seem right. If that really happened, why didn't he connect anything with it? And why did he connect so well with things that had been totally omitted? Something definitely wasn't right.

He could scarcely even remember who he'd been pleasuring last night. A tiny bit of what his body structure was like, but not his face, or hair, or eyes, or voice. Minus, that is, the sounds of pleasure and ecstacy. Still, they gave such very little detail or ideas. "Ughh. Someone, help me. . ." Ryou groaned, clenching the bedsheets tighter with each level of intesifying pain in his stomach. "Aghhh, it hurts, dammit. . ."

Behind him, he heard the clicking of an opening door, followed by a tall, shadowy silhouette approaching. "Ryou? Hey, are you okay, dude? Do you need some help?" it was a deep voice, but it wasn't the same as last night. It was someone different.

"Yes, p-please. I don't feel. . .well." The figure came closer to him, wrapped his arms around him, and helped him off of the bed. More and more about last night was coming back to him, and he could distinctly tell that this wasn't the one he'd been spending all night long with. He was vaguely familiar, though. Besides, the man from last night was lying beneath him, an arm tucked affectionately around his waist.

"Okay, okay." he said gently, which was pretty uncommon for this person. "What do you need, kid?"

"I have to puke," he mumbled.

The stranger pulled him from the other man's grip and helped him stumble down towards their bathroom.

For several minutes, Ryou forced his finger down his throat, trying his hardest to get some of the ailment out of his system. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't do it; he groaned, knowing that he'd feel better if he could just throw up. Ryou fell to his knees down onto the hard bathroom tile floor, crying. All the countless bottles of alchohol had definitely had an effect on him not only physically, but emotionally. That was only natural, considering that alchohol was, naturally, a depressant. And now he was in an extremely fragile emotional state.

Large, warm arms wrapped around him and gently rocked him back and forth. Whoever it was, they hugged so softly and tenderly. He propped his chin on Ryou's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, 'Yo-chan, I am. You got totally, completely hammered last night, but I stopped you as quickly and as soon as I could."

It was Bakura. And it was also Bakura who he'd had his way with last night. He remembered each detail vividly now.

Ryou cried and sobbed hard at the touch of Bakura. "I-I'm so sorry, 'Kura-kun." He would reach up to wipe the tears away, but they were relentlessly replaced. "I'm sorry. I'm such an idiot. And I'm sure you didn't appreciate me giving you a blowjob last night." Ryou's voice trailed off, now just incredibly embarassed.

What Bakura wanted to say at first was "actually, I did." He thought back with anything but regret. _Ryou's so awesome. I don't even know if I can suck that good!_ He smiled warmly and tightened his grip. "Look. Don't worry. It doesn't matter to me. Don't worry so much. Alright?" Ryou nodded in compliance, and then Bakura continued. "Anyway, today is another Sleep concert. I was hoping you'd come, but you're obviously not in any condition to go."

"No, I'm fine. Really."

Bakura quirked an eyebrow at him. "'Fine'? After you collapsed onto the floor in tears from sick aftermath, due to a night of insane drinking?"

"It doesn't matter," assured Ryou, "because before I went out to the bar last night, I told myself that no matter how sick I got, I would still go to your concert. I knew it was coming up, after all, and it was the number one thing I cleared my schedule for. Nothing can stop me from going, no matter how awful I feel."

Bakura was actually a bit taken back, but touched that Ryou was so dedicated on going to a concert._ Even with his memory wiped clear, his love and personality hasn't changed a bit._ He wished to play the "protective boyfriend" role and forbid him to go, but he knew how much the concert meant. Besides, with Ryou, what he saw was usually what he got, and Bakura didn't want to make it seem like he didn't want Ryou around anymore. He smiled and replied, "Alright, you win. You're coming. But, first, you need to rush home and 'explain' to your parents why you didn't come home last night. Make up some excuse or whatever, just don't tell them what really happened."

"No problem!" The younger of the boys grinned. "Even though I killed a million brain cells last night, I didn't forget my promise!"

Seto, Yami, Marik, and Bakura sat in front of each of their own individual vanity tables, preparing for their momentary public appearance. The brown-haired percussionist smirked and carefully applied his usual red mascara and eye shadow. "So, you and the Ryou kid got your jerk on last night, ne, Bakura?"

"And their suck," added Yami.

"Yea," Bakura sighed in an almost a dreamy fashion as a woman behind him styled his hair. "He's so goddamn good, seriously. Such a waste that he has always been seen as the submissive one. Then again, when it comes down to it, I couldn't get in the habit of him dominating every night. I require control, almost all the time."

Marik snorted. "We know that plenty, Bakura. Trust us, we know."

"Is there any chance of me or Seto-kun scoring with him?" asked Yami shamelessly. "We could hear your screaming through supposedly sound-proof doors and walls, so he had to have been good."

"Are you mad?" answered Bakura, figuring that was enough of an answer for Yami. "Besides, I love him. Even if I were to share him with anyone else--which I never would--he'd get the idea that I'm just using him for sex, if I drag him to sleep with my friends. And the sex is merely a way to express my feelings for him. Anyway, Ryou is mega-conservative when it comes to sex. Casual sex is out of the question to him--I've never asked him, but I just know it by now--and he has to feel like he can trust that person."

"Guess you're right." Seto sighed. "Oh well, better to have my own lover anyway, than borrow someone else's."

"Nah. If you borrow other people's, you still get the sex without all of the drama," Yami laughed for whatever odd reason, and his make-up artist slapped him on the cheek for moving around so much.

Marik took hold of his brush, brushed his hair upwards into spikes, and began applying hairspray. "Wait a minute, Bakura. 'He has to feel like he can trust that person'? I guess that means your plan is moving along pretty nicely."

"Much slower than I would like. But, it's as fast as it's gonna go for now."

"You want it to go faster? Correct me if I'm wrong, but above all of your moaning and pleasure noises, did I not hear constant, gentle 'I love you's? They certainly weren't coming for you."

"Maybe he has a crush, but remember, he was totally wasted. Alchohol always warps people's judgements and emotions."

"Maybe," said Marik slowly, in doubt if it was a crush, love, or neither on Ryou's part.

"Whaaat's up, Domino!" shouted Bakura into the microphone in front of him. The mic gave a shrill, high-pitched ringing due to the excessive noise. "We're back once again, and ready to rock you senseless! Are you ready to be rocked senseless?" He gufawed suddenly, knowing how lame that little speech was sounding; he already knew the answer before the enormous crowd responded in ear-shattering roars and screams of approval.

In the mob of heads he could see (most of them were black), he could easily scout out Ryou's contrasting white hair. He smiled, because Ryou had muscled and worked his way all the way as close the the front as he possibly could.

"Tonight, we're starting off with our take on 'Clocks' by Coldplay! So, let's get started, huh?"

Toward the end of the concert, most of the fans had lost their voice due to their relentless screaming and yelling. Bakura would laugh and say something like, "Whoa, we know how much you love us, but you won't be able to sing along with us if you keep wasting your voice!"

Then Bakura turned around and looked at Yami, Seto, and Marik. Knowing what Bakura was asking, the three band mates nodded their head and chuckled. When Bakura turned back, a grin was plastered on his face. "Alright then! Tonight, we're bringing a very special someone onto our stage. Oh, and no one volunteer, because we've already chosen who it is. Ryou Bakura, would you please come and join us up front?"

Ryou was so nervous when he heard Bakura beckon him. In front of thousands of people, too. Admirers and fans of The Sleep cleared the way as to allow him to pass through. Ryou was so anxious, however, that he couldn't wait for the others to move, and he tripped several times. When he arrived at the edge of the stage, Bakura leaned down, extending his hand to Ryou.

A bit glassy-eyed, Ryou graciously grabbed the hand and helped himself up onto the stage, taking his place at Bakura's right.

Bakura held his mic in his left hand and used his right hand to hold Ryou's head against the side of his shoulder. "'Ey, everyone! I've got a little announcement to make. I'd like everyone to meet 'Yo-chan! Say hi to him right now."

The swarm could never disobey any member of The Sleep. "Hey"s and "Hi"s erupted. They all shouted in unison as Bakura held the microphone to the air.

"Now, I'm sure you've seen all the rumors and 'expose' in the tabloids. Such as things like: I hooked up with a guy, I kissed him shamelessly in front of mobs of fans and reporters, et cetra. Well, guess what? All of it's true! And we're not afraid to admit it. Right, 'Yo-chan?"

Ryou became glassy-eyed once again. "'K-Kura-kun." was all he could say before throwing his arms around Bakura and kissing him. This was the only way he could even more widely spread the news of their non-existent "get-together." Hopefully, this way, it would be even more clear to stay away from his Bakura.

In all honesty, Ryou was extremely confused about their relationship level. He was pretty sure they were just friends, but Bakura so frequently brought up this fake hooking up that he was wondering if Bakura was truly serious. _Either way, I get to kiss him in order to shoo off rabid fangirls._

"Mmmmm," Bakura purred seductively, holding the microphone close to their faces so the audience could hear his purrs. Then the two of them broke apart from each other. "Anyway, my point is, I am no longer on the market, ladies. Sorry. I am very happy with Ryou, and I do _not_ want to see this in any of the press or media anymore. If this warning goes unnoticed, be sure of the fact that I _will_ take action."

Bakura gave Ryou one more tight, brief hug before he said his closing good-bye. "G'night, Domino! Thanks for listening, and I'll see y'all later!" The sea of adoration raved and roared like an unruly storm as the two white haired boys hastily sprinted off the stage, followed by Marik, Yami, and Seto.

As soon as they came back to the dressing rooms, the rock stars all went their separate ways. Seto and Yami to remove their make-up, Marik to relieve his hair of possibly harmful hair spray. Bakura was heading to his bedroom to change. When Ryou shyly told 'Kura that he would just wait outside of his room until he was changed out of his concert clothing, Bakura raised an eyebrow at him. "Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like I'm afraid of you raping me or something."

Ryou turned his head away, his face steadily becoming more flushed.

"Seriously, it's fine. Look, I'm sorry if the whole sex thing from last night has you flustered or uncomfortable, or whatever. You were drunk, and you wanted it so bad. It was practically impossible to say no to you. I know you want to come in with me if not just to have some friendly conversation. So why not just come in?"

"O-okay."

Ryou happily lept onto Bakura's bed. At first he sat facing toward the wall to give Bakura his privacy, but a hand reached around underneath his chin and turned his face around. "Listen, it's _o-kay_. You can watch me change, I don't care. Of course, if you don't want to, by all means, don't, but don't feel so awkward all the time." He grinned.

Ryou nodded and turned around, gladly watching Bakura get out of his clothes.

"So, what did you think of our concert tonight?" asked Bakura, crossing his arms at his waist, grabbing the seams of his tank top, and pulling it over his head.

"Oh, it was awesome! The songs were so tight. . ." He said the last word a bit separate from the rest of the sentence, and unintentionally stressed it ever so slightly, as he watched Bakura struggle to pull off his almost overly-secure black leather pants. Bakura couldn't help but faintly laugh at Ryou's obvious infatuation with the choice of leather clothing.

_Leather fetish... now how come I've never known that? I'll have to remember, leather fetish..._

Bakura laughed again. "I'm glad you think so." He walked over much closer to Ryou--for his jeans were laying on the bed on which Ryou was sitting--and easily slipped the baggy pants on. They looked cool, but Ryou still preferred the tightness; he later mentally scolded himself for thinking such dirty things. Still, there was plenty of eye candy. After all, he either forgot to put on a new shirt, or he just didn't feel like putting on a new shirt.

"I'm going down to the beach. Come with?"

"Sure!" Ryou answered practically before Bakura had finished speaking.

"What do you mean, you've never been here before?" demanded Bakura, who lightly kicked some of the sand they were walking on, but being careful not to get it in anyone's eyes. "This beach is the best thing in this whole blasted city!"

"Maybe I've come here before. But if I have, I don't remember."

"I see."

"Yea. I mean, not too long ago, I was in this bad car wreck. I was pretty messed up by it. I even lost a lot of my long-term memory. In fact, I still haven't uncovered much of my past. I've been trying to find myself. I'm just surprised I came across you so quickly after the accident."

The two of them sat down just where the seawater could wash up against their feet, and Bakura looked at Ryou strangely. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh. Just an odd coincidence is all, ne?"

"Yea."

"I mean, everything about you is so familiar to me. Did I know you before, maybe a long, long time ago?"

"No, I don't think so." Bakura answered quickly, shifting around in the sand a bit. It really sucked to have to lie to Ryou, but if he wanted this plan to work out right, he couldn't tell him the truth yet. He figured it would be better just to discretely change topics. "Hey, 'Yo-chan," he began, not looking at the subject, but at the horizon where the sun was setting. "In all honesty, can you tell me something? What do you feel when you're around me?"

"Oh." Ryou suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Well, I suppose I can't lie to you. I--uh, like you. A lot. Like a crush. It'll probably pass, though, don't you think?" He smiled.

_Believe me, Ryou, I'll see to it that it doesn't pass,_ Bakura thought vainly and smiled back at Ryou, grateful that he told the truth. "Me too."

"Hmm?"

"Me too. It's a crush for me, too." Another lie. Another huge whopping lie.

Ryou looked bewildered and stunned at this answer.

Bakura chuckled. "I mean, you're too cute to dodge or resist." He leaned over to his right, just like before at the concert, and ran his fingers from the side of Ryou's face back through his hair. Then, he tilted Ryou's head down slightly, pulled their bodies closer, and kissed Ryou on the forehead.

The right hand of Ryou touched Bakura's neck as a sign of modest affection, while his left rested against his even, smooth chest. Bakura used his left arm to completely embrace the other teen now, and they remained silent for a few minutes. Finally, the older spoke up. "Whether you want to just stay friends, or you want to explore and see where these crushes go, just tell me what you want to do, and I'm cool with it."

"I-I don't want to label what our relations are right now," explained Ryou. "Friends, lovers, 'friends with'. . .uh, 'benefits', whatever. We'll just take it as it comes, and go with whatever our mind is telling us to do."

Bakura kissed Ryou on the forehead again and then murmured, "That's fine with me. Then you must promise me, we will take things as they come, and not deny things that we truly feel."

Ryou blinked. Wasn't it a bit early to be saying those kinds of things?

"I promise you, we will take things as they come, and not deny our feelings. You can hold me to it."

"That I will. Now, I think it's time you get on home before your parents blow a gasket. I'll see you later, 'Yo-chan."

Ryou nodded, briefly hugged Bakura one last time, then turned away from him and began his mad dash home.

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please.  



	7. Inappropriate Vow

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 07: Inappropriate "Vow"  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

As boring as art was to Ryou, he still felt himself strangely compelled to it. Perhaps it wasn't _so_ strange, since it often brings the artist to express what they think, feel, and do. In that way, it was similar to music, which Ryou adored. So it wasn't that out there. But Ryou would remember this stuff if he'd been so great at the whole drawing-and-painting thing before the car wreck.

Even if it killed Ryou to continue this fake "hobby," he couldn't stop, for his and Bakura's sake. Ryou had to come off like he was interested in this. If he'd just suddenly dropped the "hobby" altogether and out of the blue, Mr. and Mrs. Bakura would get pretty suspicious of Ryou's doings outside of the house. Besides, he had classes he was taking for it at school as well, and being half way through the first semester, it would be pointless to quit now.

Today, he just happened to be thinking of his mother and father as he tried to think of something new to work on.

Currently, in his high school art class, it was free choice. Because it was their last project of the grading period, they could use anything: colored pencils, oil pastels, water colors, acryllics, scratchboards, or anything else they desired. They were also free to paint whatever they chose, and the teacher suggested something of deep and true meaning to the artist.

Ryou, who felt the oppurtunity to get closer to Bakura slowly approaching, wished to paint something dramatic, maybe a bit morbid by shallow standards. But then its deeper symbolism would include resolution and/or starting a new chapter, beginning fresh over. Thus, Ryou eventually came up with a dark/romantic type of scenario for his piece. He made the subject two males, in order to kind of add to the drama. After all, it was never more apparent to Ryou how much people got worked up over a homosexual relationship, compared to a heterosexual one.

Yet another Sleep concert was soon coming up, and Ryou intended to earn every penny of the money on his own to go. Domino High's schoolwide art sale was in a few days, after all; the maximum sale prices were about $45, which was a whole damn lot for Ryou. And if viewers and guests who came to the show wanted about two or three of Ryou's paintings in their living rooms, then Ryou could score the cash with ease. The thought of being called up onto stage with 'Kura-kun again made his spine tingle.

The longer he went on, the longer he carelessly sketched out the image. He got more and more lost in thought, and when he finally came back down to earth, he stared at what he'd done so far. Not too bad. There were two males kissing in pouring rain. The guy on the right was holding the other's face while also covering a bleeding wound which was a deep slice at the left male's throat. The left boy was gazing with his eyes half-open, with a look of lust and care. He was also crying tears of joy and kissing the other male back.

Indeed, this would look extremely morbid and depressive to some. But to others who were more familiar with art, (or even to just those who were deeper thinkers) it contained beauty as well. If speech or dialogue was to go with it, it would be words of encouragement and promise. The man on the right, who was covering the wound, was promising the one on the left that he'd protect him and help him heal.

Ryou was very satisfied with it. He felt it symbolized his and Bakura's promise to each other. Theirs wasn't as deep, touching, or as "dark" as the piece's was, but he and Bakura weren't in love, either. Plus, a little bit of drama always added to the atmosphere of an art exhibit. And since the right guy was giving the left guy a solemn vow, he named the work "Vow." As for the style, he chose to use a scratchboard, which was a black board that you scrapped off ink where there were highlights, and left the dark places alone, until it formed a vivid picture.

Besides the fact that he needed money for the next Sleep concert, Ryou didn't really care how well the paintings and drawings sold. But Bakura had actually offered to come to his show! Ryou hadn't asked him to come, nor had he even brought it up. Apparently, Bakura used to go to Domino High as well, and he knew when all of the Art Class events were coming up. Ryou gushed and giggled and thought to himself, _He's so sweet!_

"'Ey, Yo-chan, are they still doing that C-AAAS thing at your school?" Bakura had asked, taking a sip of soda through a plastic straw. C-AAAS stood for "Class-A Autumn Art Show."

"Hmmm? Yea, but how did you know about that?"

"Domino High's number one passion is the arts, and while they deny it, they value it even more than actual education. It's why so many people don't graduate from that hell hole. Like I was saying, there's a class for just about every type of art you could think of, at that place. Ask any of the contemporary music class teachers, I was their number one student."

"I don't doubt that for a moment." complimented Ryou.

"I was so involved with numerous art classes that I knew pretty much when every art event happened."

"Oh, okay. Anyway, why do you ask?"

"I was gonna ask you if maybe I could go to your little art shindeg. Unless, you know, that bothers you."

"No, of course not! If you want to go, please go! I mean, you have every right to go." Ryou had insisted. "My junk isn't that great, but you're free to go and look at the others' works."

"Awww. Don't say that. Your stuff's really good! Remember, I recognized you in the park the first time we met because your pre-sketch caught my eye." He stood up from the leather-covered cafe booth, brushing dust off of his black jeans. "I have to go back home now. I'll see ya later, man." Before he strode off, Bakura managed to briefly lean down and kiss Ryou atop the head. Then he was off.

Now Ryou was daydreaming of 'Kura-kun. Just the thought of that peck against his hair made Ryou feel so giddy.

"Mr. Bakura, it looks like someone needs a wake up call." snapped Mrs. Harper, the strict art drawing/painting teacher.

"Who?" Ryou innocently inquired, still half-dazed. He was able to answer his own question, however, when the class laughed in response to the show of stupidity; he blushed faintly in response and hung his head slightly.

"Seriously, dude, what are you drawing, anyway?" asked one of Ryou's classmates. He didn't wait for an answer and snatched the paper from the table on which is was set. The student stared at it for a few moments, paying attention to every little detail and squinting, as if it was some kind of mind trap. "Ewwwww, it's two fags."

Ryou swung his leg forward and back in a swift movement, kicking the boy roughly in the shin, and cutting him off mid-sentence. _I _know_ what the picture is, dumbass. I drew it. I came up with it._

The student growled and took his seat, not bothering to try to finish what he was saying. The sensei gave a confused, perplexed look before shaking her head and changing the subject. "Anyway, it is vital that you finish your final first-term project. It will be required at your exhibit during the C-AAAS, and it should say something about you. You are free to sell them if you desire, but you don't have to. Since tomorrow's Friday, it'll be your last day to work on these, and otherwise, you can bring them home and work on them until Sunday afternoon, which is the day of the sale-slash-show." Then Mrs. Harper continued to babble and ramble on about information of location, time, plans, and the like. As soon as she did, once again, Ryou found himself reverting back to "dreamy Bakura" mode.

He found himself still feeling angry about his art classmate's rude antics. So he eagerly and immediately made his way to the door when Mrs. Harper said it was time to leave. His pace was brisk and rushed, and when he felt a hand touch his shoulder and stop him just before he made it to the door, he whipped his head around and snapped, "What is it!"

For a few moments, there was a tense silence, and then Mrs. Harper began talking again. "Ryou, you do realize you'll get a detention for that, yes? Anyway, I wanted to talk about your sketch." She took a moment to walk over to the drawing drawer and pull off the sheet of paper with the name "Ryou Bakura" on the back of it. "Now, I know you and Reiji" --that was the rude student's name-- "don't exactly see eye to eye. You two have completely contrasting personalities and tastes. I thought Reiji was just giving you a hard time because you don't get along with him, but when I saw your sketch, well, I have to admit that it concerns me."

"Concerns you. . .?" Ryou muttered slowly, trying his best to keep his utter frustration under control.

"It's not a person's couteous right to ask a person of their sexuality, this I know, but. You see, I really don't understand why you'd even think of choosing this for your topic, let alone why you thought you could use it in any project in this school. But the point is, I cannot accept it."

"Accept what?" yelled Ryou, throwing his hands to the sky as if in defeat. _My work, or homosexuality?_

Mrs. Harper sighed. "You see, Ryou, I never thought of you as the kind of person who would use such an inappropriate subject. You've always been so obedient in the past, and an excellent student. Your artwork is stellar, and I honestly think you should pursue a career in painting in the future. You always have it together. But now, all of a sudden, this? What kind of ideas are you trying to introduce to this school?" The teacher was obviously getting angry (almost as much as Ryou) as she pointed to the drawing as if it was a plagiarised novel.

"I don't draw, or do any art for that matter, to 'introduce ideas' to anyone or anything. I do it to express myself."

Mrs. Harper nonchalantly dropped the paper to the floor and flaced her foot atop it. She couldn't tolerate being polite anymore if it meant her student would continue to argue with her. "Well, you are in a school class. My class. Just because you're gay, that doesn't mean the whole school is, and it doesn't mean the whole school approves of gay men."

"It's a free country, and it's my right to express myself as long as I'm not hurting anyone or anything. I've never had to ask for your approval like 'Mrs. Harper, may I do this, may I do that.' Nor do I need the rest of the school's approval. Why should I ask permission to paint what's in my mind? Pretty soon I'll need your permission to think a certain way. This just in, my mind is not your property."

"Well, some thoughts are better left unspoken."

"Yes, but there are exceptions to every rule."

"It's common courtesy, Ryou, to respect other's opinions."

"It's also common courtesy to respect _mine_. Posting my opinions in a piece of paper in semi-public display is not hurting anyone else's opinion. I don't care if they agree with me, disagree with me, or they are indifferent. No one is making them look at my work, either. Not to mention that it's another one of my rights to believe what I believe, isn't it?"

"No one's stopping your beliefs, Ryou. But I am teacher and you are student."

"I still want to know how homosexuality is 'inappropriate', hmmm? Because it's not something you approve of, right?"

"Ryou, this has gone on far enough."

"I disagree with that. How is my innocent little drawing vulgar or inappropriate? All I got so far is 'because it's two guys.' Take a pill, why don't you?"

"Do not tell me to take a pill!"

"Still, it's not like they're having sex, or even making out. It's just an innocent kiss. I mean, a mom kisses her son good night. You've never had a problem with heterosexual subjects making out or doing who-knows-what in the past. Just because homosexuality is a minority, it is suddenly inappropriate? Who are you to judge what is open to opinion?"

Mrs. Harper rubbed her temples. "I'm sorry that you feel that your rights are being neglected. But in the nation called 'Domino High School', not all expression is 'legal', and contradicting the administration is 'breaking the law.' By continuously arguing with me, you have earned yourself two more detentions for a grand total of three. No one has ever managed to receive that many in one day at this school. Now, would you like to make a simple compromise?"

"No," said Ryou bitterly. "No, I wouldn'tlike to make a compromise. I have the right to paint two guys kissing, and I plan to continue excercising my rights. If that means getting some detentions, then bring on the Saturday schools."

"I've given you fair warnings that your piece is inappropriate. If you don't comply with me, I will have to give you a zero on this free choice grade, and at the least, you will be suspended. I had such high hopes for you before, but I can't give any one student special treatment, Ryou."

Ryou's jaw dropped incredulously. "Ah, no, hell no," he protested, laughing a bit dilariously. "Hellno, I don't think so. That's wrong and that's just plain unjustified. Trust me, I know I am right, Mrs. Harper, so do not tell me I am wrong, because this is one thing that's not open for opinion. I'm not going to compromise, and I'm notgoing to give up without a fight. Get ready for one hell of a protest, Mrs. Harper, because by messing with my rights, you've sunk armpit-deep."

For a mid-teen with mega-strict parents, Ryou sure had connnections. Then again, he was friends with one of the most famous rock bands in the entire world. And famous people knew at least ten times the amount of people as the average person.

He also had internet access like most people, so he went online and used search engines.

"Gay/Lesbian clubs in Domino" is what he typed in the search bar, and he immediately found information about the closest local club. He was actually a bit shocked how popular they were, and how many members they had. There the website listed e-mail addresses, locations for meetings, phone numbers, everything. He seriously doubted that he would actually join, though, because he would never be able to keep something like a club membership secret from his mother and father. Still, becoming a part of the gay/lesbian community could prove interesting.

Mai, who was shown to be the leader of the Domino Gay/Lesbian Club (DGLC) was on AOL Instant Messenger. Ryou made the screen name "cheatedartist01724" and sent Mai an instant message.

_**cheatedartist01724:** hey, can I ask you a favor?_

_**MaiLoverGurl:** what kind of "favor"? who is this?_

_**cheatedartist01724: **Ryou from Domino HS.. i need you n your club's help in a protest_

_**MaiLoverGurl: **o ok.. well what kind of protest? r u in my club or something?_

_**cheatedartist01724: **no.. my school's art teacher is planning to flunk me for doing a piece w/ 2 guys kissing_

_**MaiLoverGurl: **what thats stupid_

_**cheatedartist01724: **yea it is... so i wanna protest. will you help me out?_

Mai ended up agreeing right away, and the rest of the conversation was Ryou telling her the who, what, where, when, and how. So far, he had the support of two world-renowed bands (The Sleep and their brother band, MasoKissed) and an enormous gay/lesbian club. He layed out a list on the computer, and he felt a mix of surprise and satisfaction as he counted the people. Bakura, Seto, Yami and Marik from The Sleep. Then, Mike, Tanak, Kuro, Hirahara, and Ran from MasoKissed. Including Ryou, that was ten. Mai and eleven other members from the DGLC would also be present. After that, there was Sofia, Michele, Michael, Kenji, and Taku, representing the Organization for Freedom of Expression. So he was assured of at least twenty-six helpers so far.

Not only that, either. He also had at least ten representatives of the Domino City Public Museum, along with various popular young artists from ages eighteen to thirty-five years of age in the surrounding areas. His lawyer and countless members of the "Debate" and "Majority-Minority Equality" clubs of Domino HS also planned on getting involved. Now he had about a minimum of about fifty supporters, and they all guaranteed Ryou their presence at his school the next day.

He'd always wanted to mess the school up, and start some controversy, but now he finally had some valid reasons for doing so. Domino High School will regret cheating anybody of their rights.

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	8. The Riot

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 08: The Riot  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Signs of Ryou's presence were left all over the school on Friday morning.

Firstly, he, The Sleep and MasoKissed all worked together to form huge walls of desks in the middle of all the main hallways. After they did so, they would place hallway-width cardboard squares in front of the desk barriers, which would make it more difficult for the faculty to simply disassemble the walls. And on those cardboard cut-outs, in huge letters, Ryou's protest group would write, "Inappropriate Opinions Beyond This Point." Now that all the halls were blocked off, students and teachers alike would have to wait outside and listen to Ryou's crowd protest. He was confident in making his voice heard.

All windows leading to the outside were painted with the gay rights flag: the seven colors of the rainbow with a pink triangle in the middle. There were at least a hundred windows that had to be painted, but about thirty-five out of fifty people were able to show up, so it didn't take them too long. They weren't actually meant to focus on gay rights in general, since that wasn't the core of the issue. It was intended more as a sign of presence, like a signature.

Ryou finally reached his limit and decided that that was enough vandalism. He didn't want to go any more overboard than he already had. As far as leaving reminders of their presence, they'd done enough. After all, it would be obvious who was responsible for all of the damage, and he didn't want to cause others too much trouble after the repurcussions of this.

Many of the previously unaware students that saw all that have been done thought, of course, that it was blown way out of proportion. They'd make remarks such as, "The gay ones are always the first to snap." Ryou would have to use everything in his mental strength not to beat the guy upside the head for saying such ignorant things. Honestly, who in their right mind could actually think that homosexuality was a mental disease?

Mrs. Harper, who was an overacheiver, was the first faculty member to arrive on the Domino High School campus. To say the least, she was shocked when she saw half-a-hundred angry bodies blocking the main entrance to the building. At first, she was quite puzzled as to what was going on; she found herself racing around the commotion demanding, "Who's responsible for this!"

"That would be me." said a cheerful, British-enriched voice toward the back of the group.

And as Ryou made his confession without fear, everyone pointed to him, just in case someone who was hard of hearing could also have a visual aide. Ryou simply waved.

Mrs. Harper did not fail to march straight to the back of the crowd. "Ryou, you are in _serious_ trouble! You know that, don't you?" She seemed to be forgetting that a teacher wasn't allowed to lay a hand on their students, because she was so furious that she was poking him in the chest with each word. "You are preventing students from going into their school! Do you realize you are interfering with the _law_ by denying a student's right to education? You'll be locked up in juvenile hall! Or at least forced to do community service!" Mrs. Harper threw her hands in the sky in annoyance.

Ryou gave a classic comical expression, fearing for Harper's own sanity as well as his personal safety. That expression quickly was replaced, however, by a soft chuckle. "I apologize if you feel that your authority is being lowered because of this whole ordeal. That's right, now, isn't it, Harper-san? You're finally figuring out that mere words can't stop a deprived minor, if you are being unreasonable to that minor. Anyway, we can't be penalized that heavily. After all, we aren't hurting anyone or anything. This is a peaceful protest. We just want to be heard. Apologies if it interferes with the schedules of the administration, but the minimum of our presence has been decided. One day." He grinned, feeling very satisfied. "Or, it may be shortened, if you so desire. But you have to comply and grant the artists back their rights."

Mrs. Harper was about to further argue, but felt herself being slowly forced away from Ryou. Students who weren't involved in the protest could easily recognize the two bands and made haste to get autographs, handshakes, hugs, and kisses. Bakura, along with the eight other stars, were infuriated that they were once again being swamped by groupies. But they noticed that it was giving teachers a more difficult time of messing things up. They decided to go along with it this time.

Bakura plastered the biggest (yet fake) smile he could on his lips, and continuously cried out to the raving teens: "Haha, that's right! It is I, _Bakura Ryou_ of the _world-famous _rock band,_ The Sleep_, in broad daylight with a _pen_ that I _need to put to use_!" The younger white-haired boy made a facefault due to the insane laughter that was erupting from his mouth. Bakura couldn't have sounded more un-Bakura if he tried. Soon, the bandmates and his friends were following his lead.

Even the people that--for whatever reason--hated music, would go to get autographed pictures and the like, at least to sell for profit on eBay. The entire outdoor area was in chaos, and the administration seemed quite distressed. Which didn't take anybody by surprise.

The usually stupid students began to not mind the protest. They didn't dare complain about it. Why should they rival a mob that was preventing them from going to school? It would be insanity (not to mention social suicide) to be requesting entrance to the school when they currently didn't have access to it. Numerous people, even bigots and homophobes, joined in to help Ryou's group. Despite the cause, which was fairly controversial, both agreers and dissenters came to assistance, thanking Ryou for starting something interesting.

Still, it was a disappointment to Ryou. He knew that so many people were "supporting" his riot only because it made things more interesting than the average school day. So far, he felt that he was not truly getting his voice heard.

The mob blocked off the entrance for about another hour or so before they began to get tired. They'd been screaming, shouting, standing, running, and chanting for far too long, and even the most physically fit were growing impatient and irritable. As were the teachers, who called in some back up of their own: the police. Cars topped with blue sirens pulled through the front parking lot, and two to four officers were easily able to push past the fatigued protestors.

No matter how drained Ryou was, however, he still needed some form of protest to keep his voice strong. So when the teachers and staff finally managed to remove the huge cardboard barricades in the school's central hallways, the groups and organizers were accused as the obvious "pranksters" that had been behind the wall-of-desks idea.

"Ryou! Don't tell me this is your group that did this, too." Mrs. Harper stared at her student incredulously, and almost fearfully.

Ryou flashed a broad smile and replied, "Why, of course we did."

"Well, do you think you and your fifty-something-member-reading-rainbow-posse could disassemble these monstrosities?" asked the teacher, meaning the teacher version of, "_Get your ass up there and get these desks out of the hall right now._"

"Nope. I'd rather not. Now, once you grant me justice, then maybe I'll help you out. But until then, I'm not taking orders from you."

Bakura cocked his head to the side as he stared at his look-alike. What the hell? This wasn't like the Ryou he knew at all. The Ryou he knew didn't act this way. Usually, he was shy, and a pushover at times. Seeing him like this was almost scary. _He_ was supposed to be the agressive one, the zealot. Bakura Ryou. This is how _he_ would react normally, not Ryou. Not that he minded Ryou sticking up for his rights, but such attitude and bravery from _him_ of all people made Bakura feel a bit insecure. He was soon able to shrug it off, though. Legal rights were being denied, so he couldn't blame Ryou for reacting in such an angry, explosive way.

Eventually, Ryou actually let down his headstrong defenses. The protestors were tired, hungry, thirsty, and above all, grumpy. They sure as hell couldn't handle much more uproar. So (much to many's surprise) Ryou later caved in and began to help restore the desks to their original location. This meant all this work would be for nothing, but Ryou was starting to see that no matter what he did, the equality would not be restored. Hell, this was high school: there was no equality. There never had been equality, and there never would be either. That may have come off as pessimistic or depressing, but it was the mere truth to Ryou. There is just some stuff in life you have to deal with.

As it turned out, the rest of the day was an in-school suspension for Ryou. Everyone who had assisted him (who wasn't eighteen or didn't live on their own) had gotten their parents called. Unfortunately, Ryou was still a minor, and he was the one who had to make the phone call in front of the principal.

"H-hello?" Ryou shuddered noticeably.

"Ryou?" his mother sounded traumatized to receive a phone call from the school during the day. And it couldn't be good news, because the administration was forcing him to make the call. Ryou had gotten in deep trouble for something. Despite her knowledge of this, she began to ask frantic questions, "Why on earth are you calling right now? Did you forget something at home?"

"Iie, kaa. I" --he looked up to the glaring principal-- "kind of got in trouble."

"_What!_"

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	9. The Final Straw

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 09: The Final Straw  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

"How could you do this to us, Ryou?" demanded Mr. Bakura, as if his son had committed an unspeakable crime.

Ryou sat on the living room sofa, on the cushion farthest away from where his father stood. He crossed his arms and did not dare to look the man in the eye. If he did, he'd be looking out of a black eye. He stiffened his body, but it was still quite visibly clear how much he was trembling. Even in the long silence after Mr. Bakura's angry words, there were not many things that could be heard. It was like a black void, and Ryou was trapped within it.

Ryou bit his bottom lip so hard that it came close to bleeding. He could not help it nor could he deny it; He was scared out of his mind. _No,_ he thought, _this can't happen to me again._

"Do what, father?" he whispered. His voice contained no confidence like it had during his protest.

"Don't be stupid! How can I call you my son? Where did you go so wrong?"

"'Wrong'? Fine. I-I'm a failure and a disgrace."

"You're damn right you are! Now give me and your mother an apology!"

His son merely shook his head "no", hanging it with a look of despair and solemnity. "I can't."

"What do you mean, 'you can't'? I am your father! Where did your sense of respect for authority go?"

"I-I didn't do anything wrong, Otou. Th-they took my rights from me. They treated me like a second class citizien. And I'm not the only one." He had to pause for a seconds between each sentence. "Others were being denied the fundamental things that a school is responsible for providing."

"Save it. The principal told me everything, so I don't need you to re-tell everything in a blender of lies. Why can't you just learn to accept things that you know you can never change?"

"But the world would never grow without the people who stepped forward and wanted to make a difference."

"You're so spoiled. Maybe we should cut back on how much food we put on your table every night."

Ryou's patience finally melted away. "Spoiled? How on earth am I spoiled! I can't remember the last time you put food on my table. I've always eaten one meal a day, which was lunch at school! Sometimes my classmates would give me some snacks so I wouldn't wither away from starvation. But that's it. How am I spoiled, father? Am I undeserving of food? What about water? Soon I won't be deserving of shelter, will I? What next?"

"You _are_ spoiled, Ryou! When and where did you ever once get the idea that you can just have any and every little thing you want? This is no different. Maybe someone won't let you hang a bullshit piece of 'art' that shows two fags--"

"Stop it!" Ryou finally turned back around to look at his father. Rage taking control of his muscles, he brought his hands forward and shoved Mr. Bakura farther away from him with all of his strength. He didn't want to have anything to do with this anymore. But as soon as he'd touched his father, he also immediately realized his mistake. _Shit. . ._ He panted, glaring up at the man. He couldn't supress his infuriation any longer.

Mr. Bakura narrowed his eyes. "You little fucking punk. Don't you ever dare lay a hand on me again!" Before Ryou could dodge or even think, the back of a large hand struck him smack dab in the face. And so very hard that it sent Ryou reeling off of the couch and onto the floor. For several moments, Ryou's vision had gone completely blank. All he could see was black and random colors, like after glow from staring at a bright light.

When he was able to open his eyes, he stared tiredly at the beige carpet which had caused friction burn to his left cheek. There they were, tiny blood stains everywhere, all over the once clean carpet. These were not fresh. They were from the last time this messed up memory had occured. Ryou very slowly turned his head toward Mr. Bakura in horror. He had never once stopped shivering and quivering from the fear he was feeling.

"Don't do this to me. Not again."

A fierce kick in the head silenced Ryou.

"You're disgusting."

He writhed and flinched as he received kick after kick. This time it was everywhere. In his stomach, head, face, neck, shoulders, and even a few times in the groin. His muscles throbbed with ache and fatigue, and Ryou tried his best to outlast the pain. If he could keep his mind at ease, the pain would be much weaker.

By about thirty seconds later, Ryou's theory no longer worked. He blacked out once again, this time screaming for help.

He was dumbfounded, absolutely dumbfounded.

How was it possible for a room to be locked from the outside? And what the hell good use could one think of for locking a door from the outside? However it had happened, Mr. Bakura had locked Ryou in his bedroom. Ryou could remember waking up to his father still beating the living hell out of him. When Ryou had told his father that he was awake now, the furious parent had grabbed his son by the shoulders, nearly headlocking him like a straitjacket. Then, with a nimble push, Ryou was literally thrown into his room, and before he could even stand up, the door slammed behind him.

The weathered teen desperately tried to open the door and get out of the house. But when he'd expected the door to flight right open as he pulled, he pulled a muscle in his lower arm. He hissed and gritted his teeth. The doorknob would not budge. It made faint "click" sounds as he attempted to turn the doorknob over and over again. "Damn you!" he screamed, jerking on the knob. But the more he struggled, the more he found himself out of breath. Considering his already terrible physical condition, (thanks to his father) it didn't take him long to wear himself out and collapse to the floor, feeling utterly defeated.

A vibrating noise came from underneath Ryou's matress. Followed by a faint tune that resembled the Sleep song, "The Rude Awakening." What on earth? Ryou cursed under his breath, and he tried his best to ignore the obnoxious, different-key version of "TRA's" catchy chorus. He had a migraine headache. He wasn't in the mood to listen to this. What the hell was that song coming from? He started for his bed, willing to do anything to shut the noise up.

Ryou slid his hand inside and then pulled out a small silver cell phone. A cell phone? Since when did he have a cell phone? Who would have given him one? How would his family have the money to pay for one? And if it wasn't them, then who the hell payed for all of this?

A million questions flooded his mind at once, but he put them in the back of his mind. Opening the cell phone he mumbled an impatient, "Hello?"

"Yo, Ryou! What's going on?" It was Seto. Why of all people did he have to call right now? Ryou didn't feel like talking to anybody right now. He said this to Seto. "Sorry, man. Bakura just wanted me to ask you something. Are you going to our concert tonight?" He stopped himself for a second. "Then again, well, nevermind. Forget I asked. You sound like you feel pretty crappy."

"Uh-huh. Yeah. I do. I really want to go, but I don't think I can handle all the booming bass music."

"That's okay, he was just curious. Is it cool if Bakura stops by your place? I mean, to check on you?"

"He doesn't have to check on me, Seto. He's not my mom. I can take care of myself."

There was a long silence. Seto did not know quite what to say at first. "Well, I don't know about taking care of yourself, if your parents have continued to hit you. If you could take care of yourself, you definitely would have called the cops by now. He just doesn't want you to get killed. Why don't you cut him a little slack?"

Ryou plopped down onto his soft matress and wrapped himself in his blue sheets. He felt a twinge of guilt as Seto spoke those words. _Maybe I should let him come. Let's see, are mom and dad home?_ He carefully peeked out of his window. There were no cars in the driveway, so he figured his parents were out drinking in order to ease their anger. Better to do that than kill their son. Of course, they wouldn't feel guilty until the lawsuit came.

But that's when it clicked in his head. "Window." An open window. Ryou grinned excitedly. That was it! That was how he could get out of here. He could easily escape out of an open window, could he not?

He could not. It was a second-story window. He did not really feel like tying his sheets together as a rope and climbing down it like some corny James Bond wannabe, either. The risks of that were far too high anyway. One wrong step or slip and he would surely die. So he was stuck. His grin disappeared, and his mental focus returned to Seto.

"Ryou?"

"S-Sorry, daydream. Anyway, my parents aren't home, so it's fine. Tell him thanks for even offering to come and see me. That's really cool of him."

"That's why I know you love him."

A switch in Ryou's brain went off, and he gaped at the phone. Why would he say that?

"What?"

"Nothing. Bakura can come over at midnight, after our concert. Wait up for him, okay?"

Ryou nodded his head (despite knowing that Seto could not see it) and hung up the phone. He looked at the clock. "Eight hours." he grumbled aloud. "Eight long hours, locked in a bedroom, with nothing to do and no one to talk to." Pretty much the only objects within the four-wall area were a blue-clad bed, a plastic nightstand, and a digital clock. Ryou set the alarm to "midnight" and tried his best to just doze off to sleep as he usually did.

It took him several hours, however. He was so banged up that he had a very hard time getting comfortable.

His body was shaking. Shaking from the frigid cold air of the room. He had no warmth but his blue sheet, and that was not much of a help. He could feel his teeth chattering even in his subconscious, sleeping mind. About an hour after he had began to sleep, the shivering began. Then, very gradually, he became more and more chilled.

He didn't know how much later it was when the back of his mind could sense _great_ shaking. Hard shaking. His shoulders were shaking back and forth. Why? People didn't shake that much, no matter how cold they got.

It really hurt, too. Something was clenching one of the many sore spots on his body. _Stop it,_ he thought, now awake. He tried his best to ignore the clench by pulling away from it, but it only came back.

Then a voice followed. "Ryou, get up!"

Ryou grunted, clearly annoyed. So a hand was snatching him around. God, he really had to be rough all the time, didn't he? "Stop!" Ryou shouted, finally turning toward whatever was grabbing him. His brown eyes shot open, ready to glare. But instead of seeing his father like he had expected, he was staring back at another pair of dark brown eyes. "'Kura?" he blinked.

"Cool, you're awake now." said Bakura, who looked at Ryou's clock and turned off the alarm. He sat down next to Ryou on the bed, and he could not help but frown at the state of his friend's bedroom. "You, my friend, need to get the hell out of this place and somewhere with better living conditions. This is not advice, it is an order. Not just for your sake, but my sake, too. I don't want to keep having to come into this hell hole. Now, care to tell me how you got locked in your own bedroom?"

"I'm so sorry for being so rude, Kura-kun. I thought you were. . ." he had apologized, but halted his excuse. He could not tell Bakura that he had thought he was his father. Bakura could not know that he had gotten hurt again. It would cause too much hassle.

Bakura peered solemnly into the other boy's eyes. He almost looked--sad. "Thought I was what? I mean it, Yo-chan. I didn't ask for an apology. I want to know how you got locked in here. Please tell me. I need to know." Bakura's dark, shadowy eyes gazed with an almost all-knowing look.

_Why do you always have to know everything? _thought Ryou, directing his eyes away from his crush.

"Fine. Then who locked you in here? Who was it?"

Ryou refused to respond.

"Was it your father? Did he lock you in here? Answer me. Please." He looked at him, his facial expression softening a great deal. "He hit you again. Didn't he?"

Ryou hung his head just like he had when he had been with his father. When he opened his mouth to speak, he was unable to utter one word. All he could do was whimper, and then break down into sobs. All of this pain was too much. Why could he not be one of those millions of lucky teens who had caring, loving parents? Who had a wonderful family and a beautiful life going for them? And why do all of the teens who have that take it for granted?

Bakura turned on the lamp for better light. He lifted up Ryou's baggy T-shirt and examined his back without warning. Ryou would have protested, but he was crying too much to do so. Breath catching in his throat at the bruises and scars that plagued the back of Ryou, Bakura quickly let go of the T-shirt's seam and let it cover his body again. This was too much. But he had known it would happen again. Why did he have to wait until it got this bad? "Ryou." he whispered, touching his fingertips to Ryou's pale, bruised arm. Bakura could feel Ryou tense at even the slightest caress, so he quickly pulled away. "It _was_ him, wasn't it? What the hell did he do to you?"

Ryou covered his face with his hands. He did not want to make eye contact with him or even speak to him. As if he was ashamed of something.

_That idiot really_ _messed him up._ Bakura told himself, supressing his anger. It was very clear. Ryou's once bold confidence and pride was now non-existent. The protest had proven Ryou to be very strong-willed and fearless, so he knew that getting beaten was the only explanation of where that confidence disappeared to.

From behind him, Ryou felt strong arms bracing gently around his body. "Why did he do this?" Bakura whispered in Ryou's ear. His intentions were to get through to Ryou by whatever means possible. "Tell me, Ryou. Why did he hurt you? Why did he lock you in your bedroom? How did he get so angry?"

"Th-the protest. I had to call home for it, and he was about to start bashing gay people, so I-I pushed him. I know it's my fault for getting too physical, but I couldn't help it."

Bakura hugged him tighter, giving a signal to Ryou to stop talking. "It's not your fault. He hurt you too many times in too many ways. Illegal ways. All these times he's hit you, that's child abuse, Ryou. And locking you in your room for hours without food or water? That's called 'child neglect.' We have to call the police. I told you to last time, but now I'm going to make sure you do it. It's the only way to save you from this. Do you really want to keep living like this?" Bakura rested his head on Ryou's shoulder.

Ryou sniffed, wiped his eyes, and shook his head. "No. I don't want him to hurt me anymore. I don't want to see him ever again. I don't want to remember him anymore. I want him to go away."

"Oh, he will. You can bet my ass he will." assured Bakura. He glared out the window, where he could see the parents of Ryou pulling into the driveway. "They're here. We have to call now, before they go off somewhere again. Are you ready?" Ryou nodded, and handed his cell phone to Bakura. The numbers for the local police department were entered into the screen, and a few seconds later, Bakura said:

"Yes. I would like to report a child abuse case."

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	10. The Convenience of Rainy Weather

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 10: The Convenience of Rainy Weather  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Ryou was on Cloud Nine by the next day. The short of the story was that the cops had come to Ryou's house after Bakura's little call. Bakura then revealed the multitude of marks and bruises all over Ryou's body and face. The two officers actually gasped and gaped at the damage that had been done. This was absurdity! 

Mr. and Mrs. Bakura were also standing among the group at about thirty minutes past midnight. Bakura took a hold of the father's fist and asked the officer to closely examine the knuckles. That proved as some fairly decent evidence. Ryou's dad had knuckles that were red and fatigued looking. And there were faint black scuff marks on the back of Ryou, which could very well be from the black boots that Mr. Bakura was wearing.

Then Bakura pointed out Ryou's slim, frail figure. You could almost see and feel his ribs, it was even frightening

The male officer looked at his female counterpart, then mumbled amongst themselves for several minutes before turning back to Bakura. "We solemnly regret the injuries of your friend, but I'm afraid there is no one hundred-percent solid evidence that these people are to blame. It isn't our job to take sides. But if you two are truly innocent, you won't mind going on trial sometime within the next sixth months."

"_What!_" shouted the two parents in synche. Mr. Bakura was very tempted to start beating up not only Ryou, but Bakura as well. But he was at least wise enough to know that beating someone up in front of certified police officers was a very bad idea.

In the end, the two adults were taken into custody. When Ryou told Bakura that he needed a place at which to live now that his parents were gone, Bakura grinned. "Well, I guess this means you're kind of on your own in this situation." he frowned, but then almost instantaneously gave a look of enlightment. "Oh, I know! Stupid me. Feel free to crash at my place. I mean, if that's okay with you."

Ryou jumped up to Bakura's eye level (which was slightly higher than his own) and hugged his companion. "I'd love that, Kura-kun! Ar--arigatou." he stuttered his thank-you, bowing his head quite lowly.

"Hey, no problem, Yo-chan." he said, softly rubbing his palm on the top of Ryou's head.

After merely a couple of moments of silence, Ryou visibly shuddered and trembled, then looked back up at his counterpart. Bakura gasped at what he saw; Ryou's face was a faint red, and tears were rolling down his pristine cheeks. "Ryou, you're crying! Don't worry, I'll take care of you." Eyebrows furrowed, Bakura quickly held Ryou in his arms and stroked his back comfortingly. "What's wrong? Don't worry, they're gone now. You won't ever have to deal with them again." Ryou shook his head slightly, now letting out audible sobs.

"What's wrong, Ryou? Did those bastards do something else to you? Please tell me if they did, Ryou. I need to know. What happened to you? Is there something I don't know?"

"I mean it. Th-thank you so much. Now they're gone for good." Ryou whispered, wiping his eyes and lightly pinching the bridge of his nose. He didn't seem to be finished speaking or expressing his thoughts.

Bakura was a bit shocked that he was crying just in giving a simple statement of gratitude. He had never claimed that he owed him a thank-you for getting rid of his parents or giving him a place to stay.

Were those tears of joy or sorrow that he was seeing in Ryou's eyes? "Ryou."

"Not just for taking them away. For everything. For offering me a place to stay as soon as it became a problem. And opening up to me. And for expressing so much concern and care for me. Now that I know I can't depend on my parents, I don't understand anything anymore." he gripped a fistful of his bangs and pressed his hand to his forehead. Bakura was overwhelmed by this sudden outpour of emotions. He had never felt such sorrow or despair in years, and it was almost awkward for him to watch someone crumble into such hysterics.

But with Ryou, this was not the case. That was simply because Ryou was the very person that Bakura had always been able to confide in with his emotions. "What's right, what's wrong, what's the truth, and what are lies. And what to believe or not to believe. You're the only person I have left to trust now, Bakura. I can't trust anyone but you. You may only be one person, but it really means a lot to me. . ." That was all he could manage to say before his cries overpowered his speech abilities once more.

Bakura took Ryou's head on his shoulder and patted his back again. Ryou was not able to see the distressed look in his eyes due to his own weeping. _Poor Ryou,_ was all he thought as he reflected upon this change that Mr. and Mrs. Bakura had brought forth in Ryou. He had no doubt in his mind that there would be a permanent emotional and psychological scar in Ryou's mind and heart forever. Bakura knew first-hand what it felt like to be betrayed by people. . .

But as his conscience began to think such a selfish-seeming thought, Bakura shook it off. He told himself to contemplate on that another day, when Ryou's soul did not seem to be crumbling in his very arms. He could think about himself any day of the week. "You don't need to thank me for anything at all, Yo-chan. I'm only being me. In such a short time, I've grown so attached and even dependent on you. It's only been about two months, and I know that might seem weird to you. But it's the truth. You're the one I want to protect now. And it breaks my heart to ever see you broken like this."

For some reason, Ryou did not answer him. When the two pulled away from each other just far enough where they could see each other's faces, Ryou's eyes were still glistening with tears. Bakura could not look at his love so hurt any longer. He turned away from him, still holding Ryou by the hand. "Let's go home."

Ryou, in turn, said nothing, but nodded his head and obediently followed Bakura back in the direction of the stadium.

The weather outside was a nightmare to walk in. The summer rain pounded over their heads and shoulders, spilling like Bakura's and Ryou's tears. They walked down streets and over sidewalks, ploshing through deep, wet puddles.

When they reached a bus stop with a bench and a awning to keep dry, the two boys paused to catch their breath. Ryou folded his arms and shivered as he sat down on the moist wooden seat. Bus stop or no, getting to the stadium would not be so easy as just waiting for a bus to come. They did not come this late at night, let alone on weekends.

Bakura sat down beside him, and after a few minutes of silence, he questioned, "Are you ready to keep going now, or do you need more rest? Whenever you're ready, I am."

Ryou shivered again. "I'm ready."

Bakura eyed him carefully before rising from his seat. Ryou did this as well, and was prepared to keep walking for his destination. But a hand touched his shoulder, sending a chill through his body. "Kura-kun? What is it?"

Said man stood there solemnly, and when he did not respond, it almost seemed as if Bakura had not heard Ryou's query. "God dammit, you're freezing." He unzipped his jacket and removed his arms from it. Ryou found himself standing there completely awestruck as Bakura placed his own jacket onto the other boy's shoulders.

It was a horribly frigid night, and it was pouring tears of the clouds. And Bakura was giving up his own warmth for him?

"Thank you." Ryou had much more appreciation than he let off, but he was too bewildered to thank him any further.

Now Bakura was ready to leave the covered area. But this time Ryou stopped him by holding onto and gently tugging the end Bakura's sleeve. Bakura redirected his gaze to Ryou, who was peering back at him. _I_'_m not afraid anymore. _he told himself mentally, slowly walking closer to Bakura. _Right?_

Bakura waited patiently and curiously as Ryou approached him. _Forgive me. _Ryou thought as he wrapped his arms around Bakura's neck. Drawing their eye levels nearer. Two pairs of chocolate colored eyes met each other intently. Motionless and awaiting Ryou's next move, Bakura examined his facial expression.

Ryou closed his eyes and brought his face closer to Bakura's. He could feel the warm steam from the older boy's breath against the cold air. When he was perhaps inches away, he stopped himself and turned his head to the side.

The older teen was not fooled by Ryou's reluctance. He could see it clearly in his eyes and face. For so long, he had waited to hold him like this. Ryou had never lost his timid, shy nature at all. Bakura reminded himself of this. _To Ryou, you are still but a stranger. He doesn_'_t understand anything about who or what you are. He does not understand. . ._ his conscience was screaming at him. Ignoring the thoughts, he continued to look at Ryou with a look of desire and longing. He loved Ryou so much.

Bakura rested his palm on the back of Ryou's head. Finally, no longer even a bit wary in his actions, he pulled the boy's face to his and locked his rough lips with Ryou's soft, smooth ones. At a first glance, it would appear that the kiss was forced and not thought out at all. Or it may have appeared rushed or emotionless to others. But for the two of them, the timing was perfect.

Ryou seemed to melt away in the security of Bakura's arms. Why did doing this with him feel so natural? Why did it feel so right to be here with him? He graciously returned the gesture, wishing to kiss Bakura until he felt that he could properly get his point across. That he loved him. That he loved Bakura with everything he was, and that he wanted to do whatever he could to make him happy.

The lip-lock was relatively short lived for Bakura, about twenty seconds at the most. And as the two broke apart from one another, Ryou was blushing furiously. Once again, he would not look at Bakura in the eye as he spoke. "About a month ago, I made a promise to you that I would not deny my feelings. But I don't understand. Not these feelings inside of me, and not this relationship we have with each other. And I do not understand you either, Kura-kun."

The rock idol chuckled to himself, not even bothering to release his hold on Ryou. A warm aura came from Bakura as he squeezed Ryou closer to him in a soft hug. "You don't understand me, huh? Well, don't worry. Not a lot of people do, after all. But I will tell you this. I love you."

Ryou's grip on Bakura tightened as he gave an almost girly squeal. "You're so sweet! Not a lot of guys are that straight-forward with their feelings, ne? Usually, with guys, the other person has to pry those words out of their lover. You know? I'm so happy that you're not like that."

Bakura blinked with childlike eyes for a moment. What was this? Suddenly, Ryou's mood took a 180 degree turn from solemn and serious to playful and cheery."'Lover'? I sure wouldn't mind that title coming from you. . .koibito."

The younger teen became glassy-eyed, which Bakura always found quite adorable and suiting for Ryou. "Awwww! You're such a freakin' sweetie! I love you, Kura-kun! May we please go home now? I'm kind of cold."

"Of course," Bakura finally stopped hugging Ryou, but then he leaned down and lifted him up into his arms. Ryou was caught off guard by the act, but he certainly did not mind. He was perfectly capable of walking all the way to the stadium by himself. But Ryou figured that he should humor Bakura and let him carry him home.

All the while, two parts of Ryou's mind were shouting at him. One was swooning and scolding Ryou for waiting so long for this night. The other half, however, was screaming at Ryou for how rushed and stupid this whole Bakura thing was appearing to be.

* * *

If you haven't noticed, I edited the chapter. It looks much neater now. So if you haven't noticed, then NOTICE, biatch, and appreciate my hard work :) haha, review, please. 


	11. Bakura and Otogi

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 11: Bakura and Otogi  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

To Ryou, things were finally seeming to settle down. Regardless of how confusing and odd his whole life seemed from time to time, he still would never trade it for the world.

Even life with The Sleep was proving to be quite peaceful and even interesting. At first, he had thought that it would be way too awkward living with these four other guys. Minus Bakura, he did not really know them, and he usually was incredibly shy. It would be a while before they were all "one big happy family" but it was not Ryou's biggest concern.

After a simple two weeks, Ryou and Bakura were like two fraternity brothers that knew everything about how the other lived. What they liked to eat for different meals and days, the meanings behind the little habits they put forward, and other small things were suddenly second nature to the both of them. Ryou was rather baffled about how he could possibly know all of these things about Bakura so well in a mere fortnight. Likewise, Bakura had a lot of his new boyfriend's quirks memorized.

How on earth would Bakura know exactly how Ryou liked his breakfast prepared? Bakura understood everything on details such as those; biscuits were much tastier to Ryou if they were buttered only on the inside, that he liked his sausage cooked only medium, that he liked a tiny sprinkle of cinnamon on his golden bubbly toast. Considering the fact that none of those things had ever come up in conversation before, Ryou could not make sense of how or why his boyfriend was aware of these many aspects.

In Ryou's common logic, Bakura had to be a psychic to know these aspects.

Despite them knowing each other relatively well, there was something that Ryou could not figure out. After all, he personally was not a psychic and did not have even the faintest clue what the meaning behind some of Bakura's actions were. Especially days like these, where Bakura's mood was very erratic and shifty. Sometimes the guy did not seem to make any sense at all.

The previous night, Bakura had been in the best mood that Ryou had seen in a long time. He could not understand why it was the complete opposite today; Bakura had dark circles beneath his exhausted, bloodshot eyes. Before the lights went out and the two of them dozed off into slumber, Ryou had felt Bakura's arms secured tightly around him. Obviously, he had been quite comfortable with the embrace, and that is why he woke up so suddenly about half an hour later. Marik seemed to be about in the same condition as Bakura, who had been tossing and turning in his sleep like no other. There had to be something wrong, but what?

The least complicated approach was to just ask them about what was going on. However, Ryou was aware that such a direct approach would be considered very impolite or even hurtful. He did not feel like making Bakura or Marik feel even worse. Surely Yami or Seto knew about this stuff, right? They were their best friends, after all.

"Sorry, Ryou," began Seto slowly, absently spinning a drum stick in his right hand. "It's not my place to say. Nor is it Yami's. You see, the thing is, today is a painful anniversary for the both of them. But other than that, I really don't want to tell you. It would upset them." He tried his hardest to pick his words carefully, but the effort did not show to Ryou.

Yami turned off the distracting radio in the background and gave Ryou a vague gaze. He seemed to be thinking of something else as he leaned over Seto from behind him, draping his arms over the brunette's chest. "What Seto-kun means to say, Ryou. . .Well, it is a day of remembering for them. It is not that they want to hide something from you or anything. That is not why they would be upset. They are just very sensitive about this matter, and they do not like us telling other people about it. They want to tell the story for themselves. So if you just approach them with a tender mien, I know they will enlighten you. Just please be gentle with your questions."

Ryou nodded wordlessly before turning around and making his way out of Seto's room. He also made a mental note that Yami was all over Seto back there and that the two of them were, in fact, within the room of Seto. He shook his head firmly, reminding himself that it was really none of his business anyway. When he saw Bakura in the main room and lounging on the couch, Ryou trotted to his side hurriedly. "Kura-kun! Hey, are you alright?" He not only knew the answer to that question but also Bakura's answer to it.

"Of course. I'm fine." Just as Ryou thought he would say.

"No you're not. Neither is Marik. Please, tell me what's wrong. I want to know how I can help you feel better."

As he rose from the sofa, Bakura sighed to himself and made his way out of the room with Ryou at his back. The younger male was not sure if his beau was trying to get rid of him or what, but he told himself that he should not let him just walk away from him when he asks an important question. To Ryou's remedy, Bakura only stepped out onto the enormous stage, where there were no people to be seen. He seated himself on the edge, his feet hanging, and he turned around to beckon Ryou to go ahead and sit with him. "I'm sorry for our bitter mood," Bakura apologized, swinging his feet and tapping the edge with his heel. "Today's just a shitty day to be us."

What was going on?

"I can see that," said Ryou. "I want to know what's going on, though."

"Are you always this nosy?" Bakura was only kidding around with him, making an attempt to lighten the mood a bit. However, Ryou had not caught onto the joking part, and a guilty look clouded his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but Bakura interrupted the teen before he could say anything. "Don't apologize, Yo-chan. I'm just playing with you."

"Then, um, can you please explain all of this to me?"

He turned to Ryou and smiled, as if he was getting some pleasing memory. But if it was so nice to think of, why were he and Marik so upset today? "If you want the short of it. . .something shitty happened to us about four years ago. Someone named Otogi. Well, he hurt us. And it's just really depressing and annoying to remember. But, if you actually want to understand any of that with details, I will tell you everything." Ryou nodded in humble intrigue, asking Bakura to continue if he wished.

"O-Otogi was. . ." His dark brown eyes looked distant and hurt. Bakura then doubled over and rubbed the back of his head. "I can't go on." Not waiting for a response, he rose to his feet, covered his lips with his hand, and quickly fled from Ryou's sight. A slam of a backstage door could be heard, followed by the sound of it reopening and reclosing.

"I thought this would happen." This voice was a different voice from the one that Ryou had expected to hear. It was not Bakura, but none other than Marik. It was his turn to be seated next to Ryou, who seemed to be confused out of his mind.

He crossed his arms and looked out in the direction of the stage's house. "I hope you don't take any of his reactions personally. You know as well as I do how great of a guy he can be. He just has some problems that he's having to cope with today."

"But don't you, too, Marik? How come you don't seem to be as upset as him?"

"I guess you could say that he had a much worse experience than I did. And the pain was dragged on for a much longer time in his case."

"What happened? I need to know."

Head of sandy blonde hair whipping to face Ryou, he said, "What will be gained from knowing?"

"You don't want to tell me?"

"I _will_ tell you. _I_ just want know why _you_ want to know so badly."

Ryou found himself unable to think of a reply. He was not sure of what to say. Was this a trick question?

"You really, really care about Bakura, don't you?"

"Yes. Of course I do."

"Then you will let _him_ tell you what happened to him. As for me, when I was fourteen, my boyfriend cheated on me. Then he said that I was cheating, and he dumped me. Is that clear enough for you?"

"That's all?" Ryou began, but quickly stopped himself. He rubbed his forehead when he instantly realized how rude that must have sounded to Marik. "I-I mean, were you in love with him, Ishtar-san?"

Marik's eyes were staring off into the distance once again. "No. I wasn't, but I sure thought I was. And so did Bakura."

"Bakura? So you mean that this guy has to do with the both of you?"

"Of course. Otogi wasn't satisfied with making just me miserable; he had to scar Bakura, too."

Ryou sighed and hung his head before looking back up at Marik. "I'm afraid to ask him. I asked him once, and you saw what happened. He stormed out. He appeared to be so angry with me."

"He isn't mad at you. Jeez. I don't think he ever could be mad at you. He's probably feeling sick to his stomach just thinking of that snake. I'm sure you asked in a very polite and meek way. Usually, he says he'll tell you something, bite off more than he can chew, and has a little panic attack. I wasn't here to see it happen, but that's how it usually goes down with him. So, you know. . .don't worry or anything. If you go and find him, then he might melt and tell you everything you want to know, and then some."

"But I don't want him to feel _obligated_ to tell me. I want him to _want_ to tell me. I want him to feel like he can trust me the way I can trust him."

"Heh," Marik chuckled. He had always found the way Ryou talked about Bakura to be very cute. It was hard for him to believe that Ryou had not caught on to his parents' little amniesha plot. "I'm leaving for the meeting with our manager soon. We need Bakura there, too. But I'll bet you anything that he's just waiting for you to go get him. Please comfort him and bring him back to us, so we can focus on more important things.

"Oh, and by the way. . .what would you say if I told you that you've known Bakura longer than you think?"

"What?"

Marik already had his hand on the door when Ryou began to stand up and chase after him, hoping for a further explanation.

"Sorry," Marik shook his head faintly. "I don't know what I'm saying. Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic. Anyway, please track him down. If he just hangs out with us and our manager, it might be able to take his mind out of the suffering he's going through."

* * *

Sorry, this all may seem to be coming from nowhere...but honestly, it's all setting up for future chapters. ALSO: "the stage's house" is referring to the house in theatre terms. The audience is called the house. 


	12. Come Back and Haunt Me

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 12:  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Ryou did not have to search for very long; just walking down to the very end corner of the North Hallway led him straight to Bakura, as well as another young man. This young man's hair was black, in a high ponytail. His eyes were bright green, from what he could see. So this stranger was pretty much the complete opposite of Bakura, at least appearance-wise. As he watched both of them converse, he noticed that there was a lot of friction between them personality-wise.

Bakura glanced over, briefly noting that Ryou was present. He did not acknowledge his presence all too much. However, Ryou was not very offended at all. Obviously, he was very busy with talking to this person.

"What the hell are you doing here, Otogi?" demanded Bakura hotly, intensely narrowing his eyes at the mere sight of the black haired man. He was the last person that Bakura ever wanted to see.

"I'm hurt, Bakura. Must you call me by my last name? And to think that after four years of separation, you would greet me with such hostility. Where did all of your love go? I really did miss you, sweetheart." Ryuuji smirked, placing his hands behind Bakura's head and harshly kissing him.

For several seconds, Bakura was in such shock that he was no even able to move or respond. Something in Bakura's eyes appeared strange to Ryou. Bakura finally came to his senses, brought his foot back, and kicked Otogi's shin with all the strength he had in his right foot. The other man let out a fierce yelp, quickly letting go of Bakura and backing away. "Fuck you. I asked you what you're doing in my house. Quit going back to the past."

"It seems to me," countered Otogi as he rubbed his bleeding leg, "that you can't forget any more than I can. How could you? We had some good times together, did we not?" Bakura scowled, but the green eyed man continued. "If you must know, I met with your manager just now. He agreed to get me a solo artist recording contract. I find it strangely uplifting that I would just happen to meet you here. What a small world."

"You're lying, you prick!"

Otogi strolled casually over to Ryou's side, where he took him in a mock-embrace and smiled sweetly. Ryou was angry with the contact, but he was distracted by this exchange between his beau and his beau's ex to fight back. "Oh, yes, you're damn right I am," he played along with a thick sarcastic tone. "Yo-chan and I were just about to have some fun. I was waiting for him, you see. Now that you're here, I was thinking that maybe you could join us. Hmmmm, Kura-kun? You would like that, right? Or maybe you and I could have our own fun later, just the two of us."

As Otogi spoke those words, something inside Bakura snapped. His pupils and dark brown irises shrunk noticeably. Bakura's expression showed a number of different emotions. Rage, hurt, disbelief, fear, and ache.

"Get out, bastard! Get out of my home and get out of my life."

"Temper, temper!" the black haired man chuckled. "As far as I'm concerned, I can make this my home as well if I so desire it to be. I'll be a star pretty soon, just like you. And I wouldn't mind spending more time with you. . ."

Pushed far past the bounds of man's natural patience, Bakura ripped a nearby folding metal chair from the floor. As he furiously threw it at his contrasting counterpart, the counterpart felt himself get shoved lightly back against the wall by the chair. "Get out of here! Leave!"

"You're feistier than you were four years ago, dearie. Fine. I guess I'll be heading on my merry way, then." Pushing the chair away from himself, he began making his way to the closest exit. But not before walking up next to Bakura and nibbling lightly on the edge of his ear.

Otogi's face met Bakura's nimble fists. "Beat it!" His voice subtly trembled.

"So long," he crowed before hastily trotting out the side emergency exit.

"What a jerk. I can see why--'Kura?" He stared at his boyfriend, who had leaned back against the wall and collapsed softly to the floor. His hand covered his eyes as his body plunged into sharp, choked sobs.

"'Kura-kun?"

The lead guitarist's breathing became more and more hurried and noticeably louder.

"Bakura?"

Still he would not reveal his leaking eyes.

"Ryou Bakura!" the younger exclaimed. Worried for not receiving any responses, he fell to his knees so he was at Bakura's eye level. Ryou easily plucked Bakura's right hand from his face, and he tilted his chin so he could see right into his tired eyes.

Bakura insisted on avoiding eye contact with Ryou. Sighing softly, his chocolate irises sunk to the bottom-right corners of his eyes.

"Bakura, talk to me. Please." As he pleaded for a reply, he brought his face closer in order to make sure Bakura paid attention to him.

He noticed Ryou's hand reaching for his with a bit of hesitation. Bakura, feeling ashamed of himself for letting himself cry, attempted to dry his tears. However, his attempt was intercepted by Ryou's thumb. It reached up and sympathetically wiped the saline sobbing from the edges of his beloved's eyes. Bakura was touched by such a sweet gesture; he took the palm of Ryou's in his own and whispered, "I hate him."

"I know you do." the other male assured.

"I _hate _him!" Bakura screamed before clutching Ryou's hand more tightly. His body shook somewhat before slipping into tears once more.

Ryou's fingertips countered the flow of those tears once more. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Otogi was Marik's ex-boyfriend, four years ago. T-that's how I know him." he began softly. Waiting for a go-ahead from Ryou, which he received in the form of a nod, he paused and then continued. "Supposedly, the two were in love, and Otogi was crushed when he and Marik split. Otogi told me that Marik was cheating, and that their relationship had to end. But after their break-up, there was a change in Otogi. He obviously was way over Marik, because he suddenly was flirting with me all the time. And when Marik found out about him flirting with me, he was furious with me He thought that I was flirting with his ex.

"He started this huge argument, saying that Otogi was a snake that couldn't be trusted. I had no idea why he would say that, and I reminded him that he was the one who cheated on Otogi. But he kept saying that Otogi was lying to me. That he was still crazy for him, and that he never would have cheated. I was so angry that I simply could not believe Marik anymore.

"I got so upset with him that I turned to Otogi for counsel. Just to piss Marik off, I became Otogi's new boyfriend. I thought that might not be fair to Otogi at first, but he told me that he didn't mind.

"I could see why Marik was so upset about losing him. He treated me like a prince, like a god. He always put me first. He was selfless, patient, understanding, and he had some kind of feminine charm. And. . .I don't know. Something about him just made him seem so perfect for me. And I. . .I fell in love with him."

Ryou's eyes widened. He was absolutely astounded, and at a loss for words. Him being all crazy for Bakura, it was a bit difficult for Ryou to hear him talking mushy about some other guy. Nonetheless, he still listened attentively.

"I'm telling you, Ryou, I was such an idiot back then. So, so stupid. Maybe it was my mid-teen naïvete that attracted Ryuuji to me." He was beginning to use Otogi's first name, Ryou noticed, instead of his last name. "I don't know. But back then, I felt that I was on top of the world and that nothing and no one could stop me. I was so foolish.

"As I began to tell Otogi for the first time that I loved him, I was so scared of what he would think of me. But when I finally admitted it, he just smiled and said, 'I love you too' and then he. . .kissed me. We were in love. I was so happy. Ryuuji paid more and more attention to me, his 'one and only.' He spent so much time with me. He was like a savior, or something. Our 'love' escalated as the year went on.

"One day, he told me that he loved me so much that he wanted to take our love to the next level, but I said that I wasn't ready for sex. I was only fourteen, and I knew what my limits were. Plus, Ryuuji was seventeen, and would be eighteen a month later. If anyone found out, he probably would go to jail. It was too great of a risk to take. Nevermind the fact that he didn't even have protection. It just wasn't something I felt comfortable with.

"I'll never be able to forget the look he had in his eyes when I refused him. It was like night and day. Just minutes ago, he had told me that he loved me. And then he was looking at me with pure hatred. At the time, it didn't make sense to me. None of this mess did. I coudn't understand why he would be so bent out of shape over not having sex. I simply couldn't understand. But I jokingly told him that the only way we would have sex at this stage was if he forced me.

"So he did. He raped me."

Ryou put a hand to his mouth and gasped faintly, stunned. Ryuuji and Bakura's whole conversation made sense now. "Oh--I'm so sorry," he whispered, truly not sure of what else to say.

"The meaning behind the whole mess is what hurt the most. I was in love with him, and after all I did for him, he betrayed me. I still can't believe it happened."

Ryou took Bakura's hand and squeezed it, briefly kissing the older teen's fingers. "It's alright. You didn't do anything wrong, Bakura. Nobody would have seen that coming if they were in your shoes." Bakura did nothing but sigh in response. "There's a way to abandon this pain, 'Kura. Bitter memories will always remain with you, but there's a way to ease those memories."

"I'm not feeling that much pain anymore," the older explained.

"But you said that the meaning of this whole mess hurt you!" questioned Ryou, completely confused.

Bakura smirked as he wiped his damp eyelids. "Maybe I'm just ashamed that I had such terrible taste in men back then."

* * *

Dammit! Why did a bunch of my reviews get deleted? I had at least 80-something before...Is it because my updates are always so belated? ((Sobs)) I'm sorry my writer's block is so terrible. I've had this idea for a loooooong time, but trust me, I couldn't think of how to go about the chapter. So basically I did it in the most plain, boring way possible. There are so many things wrong with this story right now, namely all of the drama. Nobody realistically would experience this much drama in a few months! Sorry, I'll try to spare you all of the pathetic angst for a while. 

I will no longer be individually responding to reviewers, but I recognize your prolonged dedication to this prolonged story, and I thank you verily! (Oh, and I also apologize for the belated and very-short chapter!)


	13. Whatever Floats his Boat

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 13: Whatever Floats his Boat  
By: Shounen Squared

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

As several days passed, life moved on in the residence of The Sleep and Ryou. After the whole "Ryuuji incident", Bakura had turned to his boys and boyfriend with an excited smirk upon his lips.

"It's times like these that require some cheer. I called Danno, Hirahara, Kuro, Mike, and Toya," he paused when he received a look of approval from Seto, Yami, and Marik, and a look of confusion from Ryou. "They're from our affiliate band, MassoKissed. Toya's letting us all go on her father's boat and tear the sea up. There's going to be music, dancing, and drinks." The tan blonde bassist gave a satisfied 'yes!' when Bakura had paused again. "The guys and the boat will be waiting for us at the Domino pier; we leave in one hour."

Ryou was a bit baffled as to why Bakura had waited so long to tell them about this boat bash, but he didn't care. He had never been on a partying speed boat before, so he couldn't help but feel anxious.

Suddenly, something caused his stomach to churn and his knees to feel heavier than lead. "I. . .I'm going to take a shower now," he mumbled before walking toward the bathroom.

Seto raised an eyebrow at Bakura. "Has it occurred to you that it's barely past January? It's going to be cold, you know. Like, freezing cold. Isn't this odd timing for a boat bash, especially for him?" By "him" he meant Ryou, and his constant 'know-it-all' attitude implied much more of a sure statement than an unsure inquiry.

"Yea, he's pretty pale," added Marik. "Pale and frail. Knowing him, he'll probably freeze in the cold winter air, faint, plunge off of the boat, and die of hypothermia like those people in Titanic. Besides, Ryou isn't exactly the 'hog-wild drinking and going crazy' type."

"Not _lately_. But I speak from experience, boys, that when ready and given the right people, Ryou will cut loose just like the rest of us."

Bakura strolled along the beach, arm linked within Ryou's arm. He spoke to him about the members of MassoKissed that he would be meeting today for the first time. Ryou did not know much about the band at all, except that their latest single was a percussion-heavy song called "Forget Me." Bakura analyzed each member as if some serious mental preparation was required.

"First there's Mike. He's pretty friendly, though not cheery in the least. His role in the band is lead singer, but he's a leader in other ways, too. He's always responsible for booking concerts, scheduling single releases and TV/radio appearances, and is often called upon to step into the other members' little spats and fights. He's the manager and producer so he's very stressed constantly, and really snippy. Unless you know him well like we do, it's best to keep your distance from him a bit, and to be very careful of what you say to him.

"Then we have Ran, the most 'unique'"--he made the "quote-and-quote" hand motion--"member of the band. She just wants to have fun and party all the time. She's the only female in the band (a bass vocalist-slash-guitarist) and the guys often argue with her that she doesn't take her work seriously enough. She's a tease, and she can even turn on a gay guy if she wants to. I'll bet you anything that she'll be the one handing out shots. Just be careful--she's a huge flirt. If she does flirt with you for any reason, don't be scared or intimidated. Just play along; I won't mind." He winked, nudging Ryou's ribcage a bit.

"The last three are pretty simple. Hirahara, the lead guitarist, is morbid and kind of icy, but luckily, he doesn't talk that much. When he does, though, his words are usually pretty cruel or harsh. He manages to piss the band off from time to time, but they keep him in the group because his style is so distinctive and perfect for the band. Just ignore him unless he addresses you, which I doubt will happen.

"Tanak is the drummer. He's cheery, and sometimes nutty as a fruitcake. He's gay--I mean _really_ gay--and he's the boyfriend of Kuro, who plays keyboard and synth. Kuro is pretty cool and aloof. Kind of emotionless and boring, but he's not mean to anybody, especially Tanak and his fans." He looked at Seto, Yami and Marik, who walked behind them. "Did I leave anything out?" When all of them thought for a second and shook their heads, Bakura turned back to Ryou. He could see the other rockstars out on the pier, waving at them. "Remember everything you've learned today."

As one party of five met the other, a young man with hot pink hair and black roots approached Ryou and extended his hand. In a soft, high-pitched voice, he said, "Ryou? You must be Ryou. I've heard so much about you from Bakura-kun."After being asked for a hug, Ryou could not help but make an assumption. It seemed really ignorant, but he could not help but think that this was the gay and cheery Tanak. If not gay, he was surely cheerful.

"He's pretty cute," murmured a solitary girl in the back of the group. "Don't you think so, Mikey?"

Mike, who in appearance reminded Ryou of Joel from Good Charlotte (an American band), quirked an eyebrow at the perky girl. "What do you think?" He stepped up to the front and shook Ryou's hand firmly. "Mike." Following Mike was Kuro, who also reached his hand out for a handshake. "Pleasure," he had said. Hirahara nodded his head from the group of ten to the edge of the boat, beckoning everybody to board.

Ryou now remembered why he had nearly fainted earlier back at home. Large bodies of water made him nervous; not scared, nervous. After all, who knows what things are living in there! And since he was not the most athletic person, he had always had this vague fear that he would fall in and drown. It was big and dark. He could barely see what so many people loved about it.

So, coyly, Ryou brought up the rear in a single-file line of teens and young adults stepping onto the boat. When Bakura held out his hand and offered support, Ryou graciously took it. Could he somehow know that he got nervous around the ocean? He set his left foot onto the white edge, and more pliantly than he had thought. His weight shifted as his right foot moved forward, and suddenly the support of solidity slipped out from underneath him.

All he could manage was a choked 'whoa!' before he felt himself slip into the water. Bakura's breath hitched slightly by instinct, and he could feel himself being tugged to the cold winter water along with his beau. He knew that if he allowed himself to be pulled in, he would be too frozen and stiff to help Ryou. As quickly as he could, he tightened his grip on Ryou's hand, and used his other hand to latch onto his lower arm.

Hardly before any of the other teens could manage to turn around to see what was happening, Bakura had forced his weight backwards and heaved Ryou roughly over the edge. Both of them fell to the textured floor with a thud. Ryou did not complain about the bumpy landing; he laughed at his clumsiness. Hearing his other half laughing the situation off, Bakura allowed himself to as well. "Clutz," he joked.

"You weren't even on before you fell off," added Tanak, who also chuckled. It had all happened so quickly that he had not even seen it happen.

Ran leaned over him, checking his face, arms, legs, et cetra for cuts or scrapes. "You okay, kid?" She skimmed over Bakura when Ryou nodded his head at her. Kuro knelt down to Ryou and placed his arm behind his back, lifting him up from his laying down position. Then he handed Ryou a warm, fluffy and white towel.

He wrapped it around him and could not help but smile. "You always want to be such a hero, 'Kura. I wasn't drowning or anything," he teased. Remembering that somebody had gotten some warmth for him, he turned and added a quick thank-you to Kuro.

At first, Bakura had taken offense to the teasing that Ryou was dishing out. At first, he almost said a bitter "sorry" and walked to the other side of the deck. But he realized Ryou's intentions and just laughed at himself.

When Bakura got to his feet, he held his hand down to Ryou, grinning. "Promise I won't let you fall this time."

Ryou _did_ almost fall over again, startled by the sudden blasting music. Yami, Marik, Seto, and Bakura laughed and patted the only minor present on the back. Not only had Ryou been caught off guard by it, but also by the type of music being played. He had expected to hear their own music: "The Rude Awakening", "Forget Me", and other rock and metal songs. Instead, it was a song famous in America called "La Tortura" by Shakira, featuring Alejandro Sanz.

With a roll of his head and a loosening of his neck, Bakura began to dance. Most of the teens laughed because it was completely in Spanish, and they had no idea what they were listening to. Still, Tanak and Marik sang out loud: "**_Que te fueras sin decir a dónde ay amor, fue una tortura--Perderte!_**" and "**_No sólo de pan vive el, hombre y no de excusas vivo yo. . ._**" Ryou could not say he had ever heard or heard of this song in his life. Nor did he have a remote clue as to what the guys were singing.

Ran, who had gone to the restroom to change, emerged from the doorway in a renewed outfit and set of accessories. Instead of a large and loose hoodie, she was wearing a stretchy and form-fitting pink T-shirt with a fairly low neckline. Yes, somehow, she was wearing a T-shirt in late Winter. And instead of baggy black capris, she now had on fringed Daisy Duke shorts (she only shivered once upon coming into the cold wind). Around her waist was a black nylon belt with many pockets. Mike simpered hopefully, and when Ran took out shot glasses and a large bottle of Sex on the Beach, she affirmed his hopes, and he cheered (not failing to smack Ran's ass before she strutted out into the middle of the deck). A pale pink whistle and cowgirl hat were the finishing touches to her ensemble.

She wrapped her legs around the metal beam teasingly, which was on a platform. She blew her whistle, in order to grab everyone's attention. "Who's taking shots first?" The straight males (Mike, Hirahara, Marik, Yami, and Seto) and Bakura all yelled, all hoping to get first dibs on shots.

Ran spun around once on the beam and jumped down to their level and pointed to Bakura. Ryou had never drank alchohol before. Well, actually, he had once before, but he could not remember that. He watched in fascination as Ran stood behind Bakura. She wrapped her left arm around his shoulder, and tilted the liquid into his mouth with her right hand.

When finished, Bakura slammed the tiny glass down on the nearby platform. The young lady blew her whistle loudly rhythmicly to her holding the sides of Bakura's head and shaking it side to side, nodding it up and down, playing with his ears, slapping him across his behind a few times, and smacking his palm. From habit, Bakura had reached into his pocket to give money. "They're free this time, hon," she assured him, smacking his ass again with a smirk.

Because her whistle was still between her lips, she only pointed to Ryou and then to the bottle of Sex on the Beach, obviously asking him if he wanted a shot. Blushing slightly, he shook his head and held his palms up. "I'm not legal," he explained. Ran shrugged with a pouty face, but he saw Bakura whispering something in her ear. Suddenly, her face glowed, she nodded "yes" to him, and pointed toward the top deck. That is where Bakura walked off to.

Without his boyfriend nearby, shy Ryou did not know of much to do other than sit quietly. He was too afraid of attempting to meet somebody new and then embarass himself.

It was not long before Tanak and Kuro cheered in brief dismissal of dancing. When Kuro began walking up to the top deck, the pink-haired man pranced over to Ryou's seat; he peered at him curiously upon sitting down. He had been told by Bakura and company that he was supposed to keep Ryou's amnesia "on the down-low" and act as if he was meeting him for the first time. He hated having to keep such a crucial secret from somebody he cared about. Not only was Ryou a friend of his friends, but . . .

He tilted his head at Ryou. "Where's Bakura?"

Ryou was a bit startled by the attention. In his book, this was a lot of attention for somebody he'd just met. "Oh. He's up those stairs."

Tanak looked up toward the ceiling, probably just to acknowledge that he knew what Ryou was talking about. "Kuro went up there, too. Maybe they're up there making out?" He winked and nudged the white-haired minor, chuckling in case this teen did not understand that he was joking. "It doesn't seem like you like to do much without him, huh?"

"N-not really."

"And you're not going to drink anything or take any shots at all?" Tanak seemed disappointed.

"I'm not old enough," Ryou mumbled, twisting a strand of hair around his index finger.

Suddenly, five men and a woman burst into laughter and cheers; footsteps could be heard coming down the metal ladder. Tanak's head shot up to see why everyone was shouting, and as soon as he saw, he too began to cheer. "Oh my God. . . Whoo hoo! Go 'Kura! Go Kuro!" His tone was full of undoubtable amusement.

Ryou's brown eyes jumped and widened greatly at the sight before him.

There stood Bakura and Kuro, dressed in matching skin-tight black vinyl pants and black vinyl muscle shirts (sleeveless). And of course, their nylon belts resembled that of the one that Ran wore, complete with Sex on the Beach and shot glasses. The two young men just smirked and held up their bottles of alchohol.

"That's right, bitches!" yelled Bakura. "We're the 'Bang-Bang-_Shot_' twins, 'Kura and Kuro." He turned to Kuro then. "Who should get shots first, Kuro-kun?"

"Who else?" His voice was soft but his expression was mischevious as he pointed to the pair sitting on the white seats, also known as Ryou and Tanak.

A pair of whistles began to blast. With a glint in his eye, Bakura crept over to Ryou and took his hand. Somehow gently, he uprooted Ryou from his chair and snatched him forward. He wrapped an arm around his lower back and held him tightly to his body. Putting the "dominatrix" act on hold, he held Ryou's head close to his face and whispered in his ear, "I want you to try this so badly. But I don't want to pressure you, so just tell me what you want to do."

"Why not?" was the quiet response. Ryou didn't seem to regret that choice at all.

Running a hand through his soft white hair, Bakura tilted Ryou's chin upward, then tilted the glass upward, pouring the drink into his mouth. "Was it good?" Bakura asked, placing the shot glass in Ryou's hand.

As he finished his drink, Ryou allowed himself to lick his lips and confidently say, "Yes!"

Everyone but Bakura and Ryou applauded, yelled, and a couple of people blew whistles. Somewhat pleased with the attention, Ryou downed another shot glass's worth of Sex on the Beach and then told Bakura that he didn't want any more.

Bakura snaked his arms around Ryou's waist and kissed him one more time, tasting the alchohol that Ryou had just gulped down. As the cheering faded, and as Kuro finished giving a shot to Tanak, the "Bang-Bang-_Shot_" twins decided that since there were no more gay guys on the boat, there was no point in giving out any more shots--they delegated the task back to Ran once more.

"Are you having fun?" Bakura asked curiously, taking Ryou's hand and sitting down where he had been.

Ryou had started to sit down next to Bakura, but Bakura had other plans; he wrapped his arms around the fragile figure and pulled him onto his lap. Ryou did not mind the new seating arrangement whatsoever.

"Yea," he replied with a smiling, listening to another upbeat song begin.

* * *

There's 13 for you. Yay, this one was longer! Oh, and two whoever suggested I add more characters to get rid of writer's block, this is actually entirely coincidental. I got this idea (to bring MassoKissed into the story) as I began writing Chapter 12. So yea, I have an idea to go about the story, but you won't get to see it for a little while! ((Giggle)) Thank you for your dedication, and I'll see you all next chapter :) 


	14. Quality Time

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 14: Quality Time  
By: Maiya Asuka

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

"You think you should _what_?" Seto's blue eyes became sharply colder. 

"What?" Bakura asked innocently, not seeing anything wrong with his suggestion.

"You're way too impatient," reasoned Marik. "If you say something now, you'll fuck everything up."

"You don't know that," snapped Bakura, angry with such a pessimistic remark. He glared out the window of his black Mercedes, which Seto drove since he was the only competent man in the party left after the whole boat bash was over. Bakura was sober enough to know what he was talking about--his voice wasn't slurred or anything. He was just too dizzy to be able to drive efficiently.

"Actually, I do, and so do you and the other three men in this car."

Ryou wore Tanak's loose hat and was still blanketed within Kuro's white towel. His head was leaned against the left-back window; he was far beyond fast asleep. As it turned out, he drank much more alchohol as the party dragged on, and now he was only worn out. The frustrated band members didn't even bother to wake him up.

Yami nodded in agreement with Marik's statement, as did Seto.

"Look, you stupid punks," Bakura began harshly. If Seto's eyes had turned colder, Bakura's had become icily frigid. "It's not as if Ryou's in any danger anymore. His parents were taken into custody, meaning that nobody will penalize the poor kid by smacking and kicking him around. He lives with me. What thing of possible negativity could happen? Worst-case scenario, Ryou won't remember the stuff I tell him and things will continue to be the way they are now. But since that's not a negative effect, why not go for it?"

"Correction," Yami replied. "The worst-case scenario is, Ryou will not remember the things you tell him, and then things will get increasingly _awkward_ for the both of you. Then you will screw up everything you two have."

"What do the two of us have right now, anyway?" He sighed, watching the soft breathing of Ryou's dozing form.

"You have a cute boyfriend who loves you to shreds."

"Does he?"

"Of course, you prick!"yelled Marik, intervening. "Hasn't he already demonstrated enough that he loves you with everything he can offer to you? Ungrateful bastard!"

Another sigh from Bakura. "Will you stop fucking shouting already? Maybe I am, but if you were in my shoes, you'd understand. Sure, Ryou might think he loves me, but he doesn't know me at all. He knew me before that wreck, not after it. Knowing that everything we really had has been long dead, it's just depressing, you know. That red sportscar ruined everything."

_I'm so sorry for not understanding,_ Marik thought, but said nothing more.

"So tell me then, Bakura," Seto said after a few moments of silence. "Do you not think that so much crucial information at once will be too much for him? He'll probably go into shock and faint."

"What will you tell him, anyway?" asked Yami. "Just everything at once?"

"Of course not! I might start off by telling him he used to be Tanak's boyfriend, and then see if that triggers any mem--"

It was true. For a long time, before they both became famous, Tanak and Bakura had been best friends. It wasn't until shortly after they had made it to a life of fame, however, that Tanak and Ryou paired up. Ryou had always actually been solely a Sleep fan, but met Tanak through Bakura. His first male crush had been Tanak, and since the shy yet somehow flirtatious feelings were mutual, Tanak and Ryou became "an item." Since both MassoKissed and The Sleep had been hot and fresh new bands, Tanak became more and more absorbed in his work until he had to tell Ryou that he couldn't balance a boyfriend and a band any longer.

However, The Sleep, unlike MassoKissed, was planning on easing and sneaking into the music limelight. Their approach was very slow and gradual, to make one of those "where'd they come from" entrances before hitting international superstardom. Because Bakura had so much more free time than Tanak, he offered to "hang out" with Ryou, who was feeling a bit suckered and lonely. It was about six months later that both of them told each other that they were quite a bit attracted to each other. And that is when Ryou's relationship with Bakura had begun: right at the tail of his relationship with Tanak.

"Right. That is a good way to start off such a significant confession." Yami's sarcasm was evident as he cut Bakura off mid-word. "Sure, go ahead. Tell your boyfriend that he used to belong to another guy, when he obviously loves you so much. For one thing, he is so insecure that he will think you are trying to get rid of him by telling him that. Besides, in most cases, with any other guy, it would not be able to change anything. But Ryou is very shy and introverted, meaning that he will only become uncomfortable when he finds out that Tanak was his boyfriend."

"So fucking what if he does, anyway!" screamed Bakura, narrowing his eyes at Yami. "None of that is any fucking business of yours or Seto's or Marik's or anyone else's! I know him a damn lot better than you rocket scientists, and I happen to know that what Ryou needs more than anything right now is the truth!" The others did not try to interrupt at this point. "Ryou's my boyfriend, not yours. It's my relationship with him, and it's my right to do whatever the hell I please with it!"

He gasped and whipped his head to the left. Thankfully, he had not woken Ryou with his shouting.

"How dare you try to run my love-life. Assholes."

"We don't want you to do something you'll regret and then have you bitch about it all the time, stupid. We were just giving you our advice--"

"I never fucking asked for your advice!"

"It ain't up to us," Marik muttered softly.

"Fine. You know what? I _won't _try to remind Ryou of anything good we had left to cherish and I _won't_ try to tell the truth to the person I love. Fuck you."

Coincidentally, as Bakura uttered those last two words, they had arrived at their home. He slammed the car door as he got out of the car. He went over to the left side and lifted Ryou (who was having his first. . .second hangover in his life) into his strong arms before retreating to the nearest entrance door.

"Are you serious? You're not coming?" pleaded Marik, tugging on Bakura's arm like a clingy five-year-old.

"Nah. I mean, it might be pretending for you guys, but not for me." He smirked. "Besides, I'm not in the mood after partying all day yesterday on MassoKissed's speedboat. I'm gonna just chill today."

Marik, Yami, and Seto had called up their hairdressers to prepare for a night of clubbing. But this was no ordinary night on the town, oh, no. Their mission was to hit on guys and act like a more-than-proud gay mini-orgy. The more frightened the straight men became, the more satisfaction for the "more-than-proud gay mini-orgy." Marik had thought that Bakura and Ryou would get a kick out of it since they were already obviously gay.

Seto rolled his eyes with a smile. "It's because Bakura isn't interested in doing anything with anyone but Ryou anymore. Isn't that right, 'Kura-kun'?" With Marik on his left and Yami on his right, he put an arm over each of their shoulders and then turned back to look at Bakura with that smart-ass "oops, I forgot you" look. "Anyway, you have fun chilling in the house that you see all the time. We're out to terrorize poor innocent straight homophobic men, so later." The three chuckled under their breath, marveling in the idea of messing with some people.

Was that supposed to be a joke? Bakura wasn't laughing.

The trio anxiously trotted out the door without a second thought of Bakura.

"When the hell did he start acting like such a bastard?" he muttered (even though Seto had been an asshole for quite some time now) sitting down on the nearby sofa.

Suddenly he remembered Ryou. Just waking up after a night of a miserable hangover, Ryou yawned broadly, feeling very well rested. He had slept on the couch all night long--and all day long, as well. "Where are they going?" He rubbed the corner of his eyes.

Bakura narrowed his eyes at the exit as if Seto, Marik, and Yami were still standing in the doorway. "Stupid shit," he answered bitterly. "You feeling okay?"

"Of course. I've been sleeping for about a whole day now, literally." Ryou pointed to the clock that read, "9:00 PM."

"You really were out cold," nodded Bakura, laughing.

His laughter stopped when the two of the look-alikes both heard a loud growling in Ryou's stomach.

Bakura blinked before saying anything. "Eat much?"

"It's because I've been asleep all day," Ryou allowed himself to laugh at himself. It wasn't a difficult thing to do if Bakura was already laughing.

After offering to cook Ryou something, he urged him to pick up the remote control and pick out a movie on Digital Cable for the two of them to watch.

Ryou had no idea what Bakura would like, so Bakura ended up picking out a cheesy-looking soap opera. Swedish people with heavy accents and broken English sobbing for two hours over absolutely nothing was a wonderful idea of comic relief for Bakura.

As it turned out, _Passions_ was a stellar choice. They laughed hysterically the entire time. In fact, most of the scenes were so terribly funny that the bowl of popcorn resting in Ryou's lap fell to the floor, spilling and scattering white dots all across the hard wood floor.

Apparently, there was some massive flood going on (the water level was up to the second story of the houses). Two best friends held onto each other's wrists; one in the water, being pulled away, and another on the porch of a house, trying her best to pull her friend out of the current.

"_Let me go! I_'_ll pull you in with me!_" the blonde on the television screen shouted at her friend.

"_NO! I won_'_t let you go! You_'_re my best friend!_"

"_Let go of me! Save yourself!_"

As the two actresses exchanged the hilariously stale "cheesy" and "heard-them-before" lines. Bakura was laughing so hard that it was almost inaudible, because he could barely breathe.

Another scene included an old woman who was being pulled away in the current of the flood. It was completely obvious that the water was coming from some pump off-screen, or something. It didn't look authentic whatsoever. Not only that, but this old woman found a large piece of wood, onto which she climbed and stood upon. She laughed triumphantly, and the executive producers of _Passions _were stupid enough to even add the instrumentals to "Wipe-Out!" in the background.

What a lame attempt at humor, and yet effective. Because of how corny it all was, Bakura and Ryou laughed almost completely non-stop, only taming their laughter slightly so they could hear dialogue.

In another scene, a woman and an older man were inside of some builing, in a small room. The woman kept insisting that the man did not leave her, but the man kept saying that he had no interest her, and in fact, had interest in someone else. Oh dear!

"_No!_"the woman screamed. "_I_'_m not letting you go until you make love to me!_"

Bakura and Ryou almost lost it at that point.

The man ignored her and attempted to open the door, almost managing to abandon the woman. However, with his back now turned to her, she turned to a table which had an ice pick resting upon it. Acting quickly, she seized the ice pick, turned around, and stabbed it into the man's back with much ferocity.

As the man groaned and turned around, the woman had a schitzophrenic look on her face. "_I told you I_'_d kill you,_" she smirked in a rather creepy fashion, her tone soft-spoken and crazy sounding.

Ryou, who had been sitting on Bakura's lap, fell from his current seat and onto the floor. The both of them laughed so hard that tears began to form in their eyes. Bakura could not recall any time that he and his boyfriend had ever laughed together so hard. Not in all the years of their relationship together.

That was enough--almost too much--comic relief for the night. He still chuckled blindly, feeling around for the remote until he stopped the Digital Cable, lifted Ryou back up onto the sofa on the cushion next to himself, and put an arm around his shoulder. "We may not get to spend this much time together for much longer," he whispered in a clearly dismayed tone.

Ryou, still an enthusiastic Sleep fan, remembered what he meant. The Sleep, Massokissed, and some other rock bands were about to go on tour with each other in various countries, and none of them were very close to Japan.

Noticing Ryou's disappointment, Bakura squeezed him around the shoulders softly. "But my birthday is tomorrow. Remember? I've set something up with my buddies and family. You'll be able to come, right?"

"Not as if I have anything else to do," Ryou pointed out, chuckling.

* * *

Sorry this was a bit shorter... and yes, I changed my penname again, but I'm too lazy to change the penname on all these chapters all over again... but I am NOT a plagiarizer, as you can say. I was, in fact, previously known as Shounen Squared. Don't hurt me!

Yes... I've been unfortunate enough to actually see that described episode of _Passions_. Ewwww. Let me tell you all, folks... **that** is the definition of REAL horror. Ugh. Though at the same time, it was the most hilariously lame thing I have ever had the displeasure to see. Ick...


	15. Happy Birthday to Me

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 15: Happy Birthday to Me  
By: Maiya Asuka

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Emi and Taro Miyako were subjects that seldom came up in Bakura's conversation. Emi Ryou, Bakura's mother, was almost as famous as her son; she produced a handful of world-renowed music artists, singers, and bands of all varieties and genres. Bakura's parents, from Ryou's understanding, had hardly a role at all in Bakura's life now that he was a grown man and living on his own. Plus, it's not as if Bakura and Emi ever had any time for each other. No matter how close they were and had always been, there simply wasn't any time. 

The thought saddened Bakura a great deal.

As for Taro Miyako, he often served as a voice coach for some of Emi's singers and popstars. But Taro had grown tired and weary having his only son go off into the world of the entertainment industry with none of their guidance. It was a worse feeling than Bakura's leaving for college for the first time, even.

This is why Bakura always invited his parents over for his birthday. At least it guaranteed the three that they would see each other no less than one time a year. They were, spiritually and emotionally, a very close family.

Bakura was born to a teen mother--15 years old, to be exact. Unable to care for a child, he was left to be put up for adoption. Cue Emi and Taro Miyako, who take the young child under their wing. Therefore, that would make Bakura's _true_ name "Bakura Miyako." However, shortly after falling in love with Ryou, he found himself changing his last name to "Ryou", simply to honor his partner. Ryou, finding the idea to be very sweet, decided to also change his family name from "Kita" to "Bakura." (Well, actually, the change wasn't legally official since his parents would be furious with such an act of "disrespect.")

Emi, who adored Ryou and thought the name change was cutely romantic, also made herself an alias in her profession. Now, instead of "Miyako Emi", she was "Emi Ryou." It also helped others make the inference that she was the proud mother of Bakura Ryou of the smash hit band, The Sleep. Taro, however, held onto the family name in order to maintain the family's true origin; that was just fine with Emi and Bakura.

Now, Ryou was "meeting" Emi and Taro for the first time. Bakura's parents had heard about his predicament almost right after the entire mess with the car crash and the ordeal with Ryou's overly-strict parents. Emi knew it would take a lot of restriction to pretend she was just now being introduced to Ryou. She greatly approved of Ryou and embraced the two as a perfect couple.

Taro was not as crazy for Ryou as Emi was, but he saw nothing wrong with the couple either, and supported Bakura's decisions when it came to his relationships.

"R-Ryou, right?" Emi said shakily, extending her hand equally as nervously.

Ryou was confused by the strange woman, but forced a weak smile regardless, shaking her hand. "Miyako-san? It's nice to meet you; you're such a brain behind some of the greatest bands these days. You're doing a stellar job."

Emi squealed lightly and hugged Ryou almost a bit too tightly. "Thank you! Ryou, it's so nice to s—meet you. I've, I've heard so much about you from Bakura. H-he talks about you all the time, he does." She could almost sense tears coming but she managed to hold them back better than she had managed to hold back her excitement.

Ryou gave Bakura a confused glance, and the older man answered: "You know. Moms will be moms. She's been dying to meet my boyfriend for forever." As he began his last sentence, he wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him closer.

Ryou smiled at Emi and Taro, but then quickly turned back to his lover and hissed, "Are you sure she isn't spazzing because she's homophobic or something? I mean, honestly, you can tell me."

Bakura felt his teeth bite down on the side of his tongue. He could not tell the truth now, but how could he lie to him either? "N-no, they're just stressed from countless amounts of hard days' work. You know? A little overdose and caffine will make you stutter a lot, you know? No worries."

As the two similar looking teens whispered a conversation, Taro and Emi also appeared to be having a frantic conversation of their own. What words were being used, Ryou could not say, but it was certainly about him (this based on the glances the couple kept throwing at him) and he did not like it. Still, who was he to call Bakura a liar? That would not be very fair when he had no absolutely solid evidence? "Okay," he said slowly, "but if things get too odd…"

"They won't. They won't."

In his pariphial vision, Ryou noticed Emi snatch Taro by the arm and drag him off to a more private location a few steps down the hallway.

"Can you believe we're finally seeing him again? I thought it would be years before we were able to see him! But look at him, Taro. He's so skinny. I really hope Bakura has been making him eat plenty. You know how Ryou really never did have a large apetite. Oh, do you think that Tanak and Kuro have been bothering him or giving them trouble? You know how much he likes him and everything. There's sure to be some drama."

"You're worrying too much. Bakura's a good guy. He knows how to handle all of this. And he wouldn't be so careless as to let Ryou not eat enough."

"I guess you're right. Well, I hope you are, anyway."

Bakura, Seto, Yami, and Marik worked together to rent out an entire club for the night for his exclusive "1-9." Naturally, being exclusive, it was invitation-only, and beyond that fairly small list, there were only a handful of people on the VIP list. Among that VIP list were: Ryou, everyone from MassoKissed, everyone from The Sleep, various Japanese bands that were affiliated with The Sleep, Bakura's parents, and some other cool artists they met through Emi.

Mike and Ran arrived together with their arms linked in one another and a 12-pack of beers in the guy's other hand. "I got the freak fuel right here."

Bakura smirked, slapped the back of Mike's hand lightly and snapped, "Shame on you, Mike! Alchohol is disgusting and potentially deadly. What if one of us were to go out driving drunk and got killed? Would you like to carry such a heavy burden on your shoulders?"

Mike only blinked in confusion of this lecture, but then Bakura leaned over to Ran's ear. "The club policy doesn't allow others to bring beer in. We've got plenty inside, though, so don't worry about it." He looked at the black-clad bouncer and said, "They're okay. Let them in."

The main room, while plenty of fun with good music to dance to and hot guys and gals, was beginning to pale in comparison to the things going on in the VIP room. Events scheduled for the VIP room included wet T-shirt contests, many more free drinks, visual kei cosplay contests, karaoke/lap-dance contests, shot-girls (much like what Ran was dressed up as on the boat a few days ago) and more.

However, the biggest event of the night was a concert planned to last from nine to about one in the morning. Seto managed to reach visual kei legend Niikura Kaoru, who had miraculously agreed to join the guys in putting on this concert. So the itenerary consisted of The Sleep, MassoKissed, and Dir en Grey. _Not too shabby, _Bakura told himself.

That was about two hours away, however, so in the meantime, Mike latched onto Bakura's arm. The pounding bass made it almost impossible to hear any voices, so as loud as he possibly could, he screamed: "Let's go be judges for the karaoke and lap dance contest!" He smirked. "It'll be cool. Let's go?"

Bakura frowned for a moment, looking at Ryou, who had heard Mike as well. The Birthday Boy did not have to say anything. "Don't worry about it. It's your birthday, after all. Have fun."

Ryou, who found himself bored relatively quickly without Bakura, took a seat at a stool by the bar counter. A tall and thin man, unaware of who exactly Ryou was, leaned over the counter and said, "You don't seem quite old enough for anything I've got back here, guy."

Ryou opened his mouth to say something, but was covered for by Emi, who seemed to come from nowhere and reply, "You got water, don't you? Please bring us two."

The bartender obeyed. After reaching for his glass of water, he smiled at Bakura's mother. "Thank you."

"No problem," she winked. "Vin's a perv. He only pays attention to the legal ones."

"O-oh." Ryou chuckled a bit to mask his blushing.

Emi leaned over on her left elbow and spoke to Ryou between sips through a straw. "So, Ryou. What's your story? How long have you been with my son?" She planted this question in order to test whether or not he had his memory back yet.

He was not sure of the answer to that question himself. "Oh, I don't know. A-a while."

Emi studied Ryou's face gently for a moment before grinning broadly. "Is the ice water making you tremble or do you always stutter this much?"

Ryou, feeling more and more uncomfortable, only laughed.

The woman offered back a small laugh, but focused on her inquiry. "Honestly, though. You needn't be nervous around me, or worry that I'm always judging you, or anything like that. I'm a mother, not a boyfriend appraiser. Ah, but what is the difference, you may be thinking?"

The two of them laughed at her light joke.

Her face reverted back into a serious state once again. "Really. I'm not like most mothers of young adults, who hog their children for themself and lecture their children all day about how 'bad' this girlfriend or that guyfriend is for them. I try to lead my son by example, but I give him plenty of room to make his own victories and mistakes. And, most importantly, I do believe that you are a '10' and therefore a victory that my son has met."

Ryou blushed again and scratched the back of his head. "Thank you, Miyako-san. I am flattered."

"You were feeling a bit uneasy when you first met myself and Bakura's father, were you not? I could tell. Anyway, you can let your guard down, you know. Otherwise you might be exhausting yourself. Nobody's judging you. And if they are, then it's always a satisfied judgment."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure," nodded Emi. She looked around the dimly lit VIP room for a moment before continuing. "You really should find your boyfriend now. Or at least get up on your feet and have some fun." She said nothing else, as she had finished her beverage, and strode off with a pat on Ryou's shoulder.

But Ryou, feeling a bit out of place with this whole party scene, did not end up getting to his feet for a while.

In the meantime, Marik took a seat next to him.

"Why don't you go play some grab-ass with your beau, or something?" He smirked.

"Uhh, I'd like to, but I don't really feel comfortable here. At this club, I mean."

Marik looked around and shrugged. "All the more reason to go out and do something crazy. The more people know you and warm up to you, the more 'comfortable' you'll be, man. That's how night clubs work."

"I don't know."

Marik watched Bakura, who was wearing a plain white T-shirt, get beer poured over him. _What happened to _girls _doing those contests? _he thought, shaking his head. "You're right," he said whistfully and slowly. Reverse psychology was becoming his forte. "I mean, Ran and the other guys seem to be having so much fun with him. I'd hate to go and actually claim _my_ boyfriend's ass if I were you. What was I thinking?" He stood up. "Have a good evening."

_A bit more sarcasm than reverse psychology,_ Marik mumbled to himself.

Only a few more minutes passed before Bakura's whisper crept over to his ears. "Guess who won the Wet T-shirt Contest for the guys' division?"

Ryou jumped and then turned to observe him. That white shirt was long gone, leaving Bakura in a pair of alchohol-soaked jeans. His white hair was tossed and tassled, as well.

Bakura wrapped an arm around Ryou's waist. "I've been lonely all night without you. Why don't you get up and dance with me?"

"I-I'm not a big party person."

"Yea, right. Did you tell that to everyone on the boat right before you got a major hangover? I think not."

Ryou put his hand on Bakura's but shook his head. "That's because I started drinking."

"Didn't you become my boyfriend so you could spend more time with me? Besides, you've done more 'indecent' things than dance with me at a club. We could go into the main room of the club, too. Where it's not as crazy. Please?" He smiled at Ryou and kissed him quickly on the lips, then poking his cheek with an index finger and making a "pouting" face.

This was the first time in a while that Bakura was acting… cute.

"Okay," said Ryou, coaxed.

Immediately, Bakura took Ryou's hand and lead him to the larger room. And, as the two of them danced at the center of the floor, Ryou smiled slightly and told himself that he had really been dying all night to dance with Bakura.

"What's the order of bands tonight, Bakura?" demanded Seto, impatient.

"Mike and them all are going first, then us, then Kaoru-sama."

"Mike?" the brunette almost shouted. "Marik said _we_ were going first!"

"Does it matter?"

"No, but I'm getting sick of not being able to rely on that guy. I swear…"

"Don't worry about it right now. This is the first I've heard of us going first. We can change it if it's cool with Mike." Bakura was perched on a stool in front of a mirror, using one of those Conair doo-dads to put temporary color streaks in his hair—this time, they were hot orange, yellow, and red like flames.

"Bakura," Yami changed the subject lightly as he applied his familiar eye make-up, "do you think we should open up the concert to the main room, instead of just the VIP room? You know, it is a lot easier for us to work with a large crowd. Same goes for MassoKissed."

"That's fine. Let's do it."

Ryou walked up to Bakura from behind and, when spotted in the mirror, was waved to. "Do you need something?" asked the older man.

The younger shook his head. "Actually, I came to assist you. You know, if there was anything you needed me to get. I know how hectic things can get back here for you guys."

He looked thoughtful for just a moment. "Hmmm. Could you please go to my closet and get all of the accessories I need for Outfit Seven? Everything for Outfit Seven has an orange tag on it."

After being mystified by Bakura's enormous bureau of jewelry and gloves, he returned with a choker, five necklaces, ten rings, and a pair of black knuckle gloves and set them on the vanity table in front of him.

"'Kura, your hair looks amazing," Ryou noticed in awe.

"Thanks." Bakura turned his head at different angles in the mirror. "Don't you love Conair? Bullshit that you have to have expensive products to get the job done."

A few minutes of silence passed, and then Bakura turned his stool to look back at Ryou.

"Oh! Right. The Sleep has decided we want to go first of the show, so could you do me one more favor? Please go talk to Tanak and ask him if we could swap time slots with them. I'm sure they won't mind."

"Mm-hmm. Is there anything else?"

"Yea. Please announce to the main room that we'll be performing, but don't mention Dir en Grey--that's for the VIPs only. And, you don't need to come back after you've done those things. After all, tonight is probably the last time you will hear us play live in a while."

Marik tilted his head at Bakura once Ryou had left. "Tanak? Why? Mike is the leader of their group."

"Yea, but Tanak is going to be much more of a pushover with Ryou than Mike, what with how much I know he digs him and everything."

"And you do not think that will bother Kuro?"

"Everything bothers Kuro," the band's leader snickered. "But he's just overly possessive. He'll get over it."

* * *

Yes, I've returned. I know what you're thinking: "stupid old Maiya hasn't updated in FOREVER!" Actually, I've had a little plan going for a while, but it's hard to submit to when you don't have any HOME INTERNET ACCESS! So, because I'm so generous, I'm giving you--not one, not two, but--three new chapters tonight! (Though I will disclaim that number 17 is an "empty-calorie" chapter as I say, because it was necessary but very short.) I hope everyone enjoys. 


	16. Keep Your Friends Close

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 16: Keep Your Friends Close  
By: Maiya Asuka

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Who knew that being a gay boyfriended lead singer of a world-famous band was such a juggling act? 

First of all, your boyfriend does not like to speak up about his problems a lot but yet, internally, requires careful attention and lots of affection to be at peace. And you enjoy being with him because he is genuine and one of a kind and you just love him. But yet, it is not that simple.

If you spend too much time with him, your bandmates will eventually start giving you shit that that is the only thing you do now, therefore implying that you are a dull and boring person, that you are no fun to be around. They want to spend time with you, too, and so do the rest of your friends.

Not to mention the fact that there are tireless practices that grant, perhaps, three hours of sleep per night. Every bandmate wants to do a certain measure their own way, and you even get a few drumsticks thrown at you due to the fact that you are trying to retain your leadership role.

Your band is also coming upon a gigantic world tour, with most of that drama in tow. It is highly unlikely that your boyfriend, who is one of your favorite people in the world, will be able to see you for about four months. And now, because you do not have a guy to occasionally divert your attention from the "same-old-same-old" routine every day, you feel sufficated by eight crazy young men (and one psychotic young woman) for a third of a year.

Bakura, caught up in this exact scenario, was trying his best to evenly distribute his time.

There were about two weeks before the tour left.

"'Kura?" Ryou tugged on his sleeve one morning.

Bakura turned around and looked at him. "Hmmm?"

"Do you want to go out to eat today or something?"

The older of the two bit his lip and looked at Seto and Marik. "Uhh, guys? Do you think Tanak would be cool if I called off my plans with him?"

His two friends stared at him, dumbfounded and silent; Bakura could not find out why that was.

"Oh!" Ryou took his hand off of his sleeve. "I didn't know you had plans already."

"Really isn't anything big," eased Bakura.

"No, I don't want to interfere. I'm not the only person in your life." He smiled briefly.

"Ryou."

"Go! I'll find something else to do today," the younger urged with a playful shove. He walked back into their bedroom and shut the door behind him, probably to get dressed.

Seto, in the meantime, still stared at Bakura before finally mustering up the competence to say, "I cannot believe you."

Bakura looked confused, so Marik explained for the brunette. "You make plans and resolutions to hang out with somebody else, but the minute Ryou comes around, you ditch! Grow some balls."

The guitarist put a finger to his chin, looking thoughtful. "Hmmmm. I do believe it was you, Marik, who said I should be more grateful for a loving boyfriend."

"You're smothering him, for god's sake." Seto crossed his arms. "There's no reason why having a boyfriend should keep you from hanging out with your friends. Seriously, if only you could watch your behavior these past few months."

"Alright, alright. Chill. I'll go hang out with Tanak and Mike. Hell, I'll go shopping with Ran just to make you bitches happy!" Bakura said with a grin before strolling off to his room. As he walked in, Ryou walked out.

He plopped down onto the bed, laying on his back with his hands behind his head.

_Could I really be spending too much time with him?_

"Good one, Bakura!" Tanak cheered as he hit him on the back three or four times. The three of them—Mike, Tanak, and Bakura—laughed.

"Say, how's that Ryou kid been doing for you? Well?"

Tanak nodded to acknowledge his equal curiosity. "Yea. Anything new?"

There was a pause before Bakura spoke up. "Hey, Tanak, can I get some boyfriend advice?"

Tanak did his "mock-flattery" act by blushing and trying to look modest and innocent. "Oh, me, oh, my! To think that the wonderful Bakura Ryou would _ever_ ask little old Tanak for romantic counseling! I thought you said you'd _never_ ask me for tips when it came to boyfriends. I'm just so honored that you've had a change of heart. What is it, deary? What would you like me to help you with?"

Bakura rolled his eyes but smirked. "Yea, very funny. I was just wondering. Do you think it's possible that I'm spending way too much time with Ryou lately? I mean, do you think it's possible to screw up a relationship with too much time together?"

As soon as the question was submitted, Tanak reverted back to his "serious-genious" expression and took a slow and rigid sip of his iced tea. "Most definitely. Why do you think you never really see me and Kuro together out in public? Mostly, the only private time we share is… Uh, yea. Anyway, do I think you're smothering Ryou? I can't tell, for I do not monitor you two twenty-four-seven. However, it's definitely a factor to consider in a relationship."

"Easy there, Dr. Phil," remarked Mike upon finishing his glass of beer. "I do think he has a point, though. I've never done the whole 'boyfriend' thing, but in all of my relationships, I kept a fair amount of distance. Spending time apart is what makes the time spent together that much sweeter. Right?"

Tanak nodded in agreement before leaning over the restaurant table to pinching Bakura's cheek. "Awww, 'Kura-kun, we should hang out more often, ne?"

Bakura laughed, slapping the hand away. "Yea. We should."

Though he never would have dreamed of doing this two days ago, he was now doing it for some unknown reason.

He actually was going shopping with Ran. Only it was not just Ran; it was Ran and two of her "girlfriends."

Ran stepped out of the dressing room in a black leather skirt and a matching black leather shirt with a very deep V-neck. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail today, and to accent her black outfit, she wore a black beret-style hat.

"Well? What do you think?"

One girl said it was perfect while another told her that she had seen better.

"Come on, Bakura. What do you think? If you're going to come shopping with me, I want your opinions on my outfit choices. If I were to pick out anything that people thought looked stupid then I'd look, well, stupid. And because I'm a celebrity, I can't be caught looking stupid."

Bakura stared at her frame for a moment or two. "It makes me fantasize about seeing Ryou wear that hat," he finally told her with a chuckle.

Ran threw the beret to one of her girlfriends. "Great. When people see me, it's supposed to make them fantasize about me; not somebody else."

"You probably need more sex in your life, too, Bakura," said the other of the two girls.

"Has Ryou been neglecting you lately?" Ran cooed.

"Neglecting?"

Ran went back into the changing room, and as she changed into a different outfit, she said, "I just think it's a bit odd. You make it sound like you're not spending enough time with him. Or that he's not spending enough time with you. Which is it?"

"I'm trying not to smother him to death," muttered Bakura, confused.

"Guys. There's a fine line between 'you time' and neglegence. Right?"

The other two girls confirmed their agreement. "Uh-huh."

"I-I thought I was doing the right thing." Bakura suddenly felt rotten, worrying about Ryou being at home by himself.

"Hey, you're the boss, Bakura. Don't let me get in your way, huh?"

Ryou did not quite know what to expect when Bakura asked him to get in the car with him for a minute. Usually when the two got in his car alone, it meant that one or the other wanted to go for a drive somewhere to talk about something. But what Ryou did not know was what he wanted to talk about.

Unlike most times, Bakura did not drive very far; he only went to the road right next to the beach before parking and turning off the car.

He turned to his left and looked at his passenger. "Do you feel like I've been neglecting you lately?"

"Neglecting?" Ryou repeated carefully.

"Like, that I haven't been spending enough time with you, or you haven't been spending enough time with me?"

"Um, well, you've been hanging out with your friends a lot lately. I-I mean, that's fine. And even though we hung out before then, I haven't really felt like we've had enough time alone. Every time we hang out, it's with a party with your friends or with your band. And I like them and everything, but I miss it just being me and you."

Bakura leaned over to the other side of the car and kissed Ryou straight on the lips. It was not quick like the past few times, but slow and deep. He placed his hands on the side of his shoulders before moving a sole hand up to cup his cheek. Ryou moaned just slightly, though rather than sexual, it was more romantic. And he gratefully returned the kiss.

"I love you," Bakura whispered when he was finished tasting his lips. "And I promise I'll make this up to you however I can."

Ryou smiled, his eyes foggy and dazed. "Just take me out—alone—and it'll be fine."

Bakura smiled back at him and kissed his cheek. "So, where do you want to go?"

Boyfriend and boyfriend decided on a fancy restaurant, which was enough for them. After all, it was even a bit of a romantic setting. So now, the two were going on the first date they had been on since who knows how long? Ryou could not recall the last time they had had a date like this, and Bakura recalled a date like this that the two of them had a very long time ago before the car accident. The dress was still semi-casual, they had both agreed; jeans with decent shirts would be look "nice" enough.

Ryou had borrowed Yami's jeans since they actually fit him better than his own. To go with it, he wore a black collared shirt with vague gray pinstripes. His shoes were the usual navy blue ones, and even though Ran (who actually heard about this date and came over to the house just to help him with this outfit) insisted that navy blue never should go with black under any circumstance, there were no other shoes for him to wear.

Bakura, just in order to vary the look among the both of them somewhat, pulled his messy hair back into a thick and messier ponytail, leaving some of the front strands out, since he had been told that that hairstyle was sexy. He borrowed a pair of jeans from Seto, whose pants were just a size or two larger than his own; he wanted them to be looser for the look he was going for. With his pants he wore a fairly small dark green T-shirt which was in decent condition. Somehow, anything that Bakura wore could be pulled off as just the degree of "casual" that he was going for.

When the two saw each other, they stared in shock for a few seconds before Bakura whispered, "You look particularly hot tonight, m'dear," and swept Ryou off of his feet, carrying him to their limo.

And when the two arrived at the restaurant, they strolled up to the front doors with their arms linked onto one another.

Upon sitting down, Bakura seemed anxious to do something, but mentioned nothing of it until the waitress had already written down their drink orders and had walked away.

"So, Ryou. I wore bigger pants tonight so I could fit this—" He paused his explanation as he reached into his pocket and took out a dark red velvet box "—in my pocket. It's no engagement ring, so don't get freaked out, but it is a promise ring. That is, if you would be so kind as to put it on?" Bakura reached into his pocket again, pulled out a gold ring with a small enscription, and slipped it onto his own left ring finger.

Ryou grinned and found himself unable to stop smiling. "O-of course!" He leaned over the table to hug Bakura quickly. "Um, actually, 'Kura… do you think you would like to put it on me?"

The older grinned and held the smaller hand, sliding the silver ring onto the left finger of Ryou. Both of the rings consisted of matching enscriptions, but opposite colors to represent how well the two complimented each other.

Their waitress returned with a glass of water and a glass of wine.

"Thanks for your promptness, ma'am," Bakura said to her and gave her a ten-dollar bill. "Please keep up the good work."

Ryou smiled at her largely grateful expression. Bakura was in a very generous mood, which meant a good mood.

Bakura raised his drink and put his finger to his chin. "To us, right?"

Ryou happily nodded and clinked their glasses.


	17. And Your Enemies Closer

_Make Yourself_  
Chapter 17: And Your Enemies Closer  
By: Maiya Asuka

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters, or any of the songs throughout this little FANfic.

* * *

Kuro sat on the long red sofa in the band's trailor. He was filing his nails (which were abnormally long for a male) and speaking to Tanak at the same time, who was laying in his bed still. "You and Ryou seem to be getting comfy with each other again." 

"What makes you say that?" Tanak stared , obviously puzzled.

"What was going on with you two at Bakura's party?"

"I'm not even allowed to talk to my ex-boyfriend anymore? C'mon, Kuro-dono. I'm just being friendly."

"Tch. I'd like to be your friend. You were all over him with your eyes when he came to talk to you about the whole performance thing. I mean, he's just jailbait anyway. I think we all know that."

"You're right. I do know that. But I'm not interested in him."

Kuro sighed and looked back down at his nails, which were now more rounded and even. "Whatever."

Tanak smiled, crawled off of his bed, and leaped onto the sofa with Kuro. He wrapped his arms around him and murmured, "I think Kuro just needs a little self-esteem boost, ne?" He started to bite and kiss his boyfriend's neck, and Kuro could not help but guffaw at the sudden burst of affection; not that he had any problem with it.

"Boost away," he laughed, dropping his nail file to the carpet and holding his hands up willingly.

Below the small set of steps, a door opened and closed. There was Ran, standing at the front of the trailor and gaping at the scene of foreplay going on on the couch. She raised her eyebrows, diverted her eyes elsewhere, and muttered, "I've dealt with enough gayness for one day."

"Where have _you_ been all evening?" Hirahara demanded impatiently when he saw that she had finally come home. "You promised you would be here for practice. Or did you forget what you told the four of us?"

"Relax, Double-H. Not like I went out and got knocked up or anything. I was helping Ryou with his date."

"Where'd they go?" asked Mike.

"Oh, that Italian place on the corner of the square. Damned if I remember the name."

"About time the two of them went on a real date," Tanak added from his position on the sofa.

"Tanak?" He held his hands behind his head, but turned to look at his wide-awake beau next to him.

"Kuro?"

"Is it stupid to go out with someone when you really have more interest in somebody else?"

Tanak heaved a big aggravated sigh. When he leaned over to try and kiss him, Kuro turned his back to him and edged away.

"I am _not_ interested in Ryou, Kuro."

"Okay. Now try meaning it."

Slowly, he annunciated the words: "Kuro, I. Am. Not—"

"Yes you are! Don't lie!"

Tanak hugged him from behind, causing the other man to become stiff. "I'm only interested in you."

Kuro's body shook; Tanak could tell he was crying.

He hesitated with his next words, but they came. "Okay. So, I'm interested in you. _But_… I don't know if I can be the kind of boyfriend you want me to be."

"All I want is committment, Tanak. I don't expect anything more from you."

"But I don't think I can give you that right now. I guess I'm a bit distracted," he paused, nervous of what kind of reaction he would receive. "I guess there are people I have my eye on." He felt Kuro try to rip away from his embrace.

"Finally, he tells the truth about something!"

The drummer remained silent for a few minutes, looking around at the walls, which consisted of pictures of him and Kuro together. Still, he was not sure if this was really what he wanted at the end of the day. He was not sure that what he wanted was really Kuro.

_I can't do this anymore. I can't be a boyfriend anymore._

"If you want honestly, then fine. I still have a thing for Ryou. I think he's cute, and I think he's sweet, and I can't help but feel distracted from you by him. Hell, I could very well be totally in love with the guy! Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you happy now?"

The other sobbed a couple of times. "The truth hurts."

"I can't do it anymore. I can't _be_ your boyfriend, Kuro. You're too insecure, and I'm not ready for a long-term relationship. I won't be until I've gotten over the people who catch my interest. Or until I'm convinced _you're_ really the one for me. I'm sorry! But I can't devote all of my time and effort into a relationship that isn't even real."

There were several minutes of silence.

"How could you leave me for your long-term ex?" Kuro whispered, climbing out of the bed.

Tanak leaned forward, grasping his hand. "Where are you going?"

Kuro whipped back around with a glare and a few thin streams of tears from his eyes. His right hand lashed forward and slapped Tanak harshly across the face, leaving scratches and undried black nail polish. The synth player leered back at the drummer, whose face appeared completely stupified.

"I'm going away from here."

He put on some sandals, pulled his duffel bag over his shoulder, and stormed out of the door.

"Are you having a good time?"

"Mm-hmm."

The couple of white-haired boys walked out of the restaurant and took their seats on a bench while they waited for their limo to return to the parking lot.

"We'll do this more often, alright? I'm sorry for everything."

Ryou smiled and hugged him around the shoulders. "It's okay. Don't worry about it." As he said this, he held out his left hand and gazed upon the silver band which wrapped around his ring finger.

Meanwhile, Kuro, now an unwillingly single man with foot-deep tension with his bandmate, sat behind the cover of a row of shrubbery. "What does he see in him," he mumbled coldly to himself. Inside of the bag which he had taken with him, there was a heavy metal pistol wrapped in a bright pink blanket.

It reminded him of Tanak with his flourescent-colored hair.

_Ran said exactly where they were spending their date tonight. Did I come all the way here just to_… He returned his stare to the gun.

He held the cold and sleek weight in his hand, considering the idea of using it. To use, or not to use? _Put it away,_ he kept whispering to himself ever so softly. _Put it away. Put it away. Put it away!_

The dominant side of his mind was not convinced.

A huge _BANG_ shot out of the night, roaring toward the unsuspecting couple. The bullet, which almost seemed to fly in slow motion, struck Ryou straight in the right thigh.

At that moment, the bullet that ripped through his skin was as if a giant pair of scissors was slicing through the previously peaceful atmosphere of the parking lot.

His pupils shrunk as he cried out in pain. He hunched over and held his leg tightly to his chest, and tears flooded out of his eyes and onto his once dry cheeks.

"What happened?" Bakura demanded in a momentary state of shock, even though it was quite obvious to him that somebody was playing target practice with his boyfriend. "What the hell!" He shouted toward the bushes, where he believed the shot had come from.

Upon getting closer, he saw exactly who it was. He coughed a couple of times in shock; then snatched the familiar person by the shirt collar and tossed him onto the other side of the bushes.

"Kuro?" He stared at the gun in his hands. "How dare you! I'll fucking kill you!" A punch landed square on Kuro's jaw, and the two fell to the ground, punching, kicking, shouting, and cursing.

"What's your problem! Are you crazy?" Bakura's numerous scolds could be heard while the two wrestled on the asphalt.

While trying his best to fight off the armed man, Bakura also tried his best to tell Ryou to run away; but when he saw Kuro's finger back on the trigger, he forced the gun down as far as he could. Another shot yelled out, but to Bakura's relief, Ryou had not received another blow. The relief was short lived, however, as Bakura leaned forward and peered incredulously at his abdomen, which had a fairly large bleeding and gaping whole in the center of it.

He only grunted and clutched his stomach, and fell forward onto the pavement. He scraped his delicate face.

And the two boyfriends grew deadly silent; all that was heard now was the gasping of nearby witnesses.

Kuro stood up slowly and gazed down at the scene he caused. His eyes widened in horror at the gun he held in his hands and the damage that he had so easily done. The more people he noticed surrounding the two injured young men, the faster he ran away from the lot.

"It's okay," Kuro could hear a stranger say to Ryou (who writhed on the bench and was completely unaware of Bakura's current condition) as he left the scene of the crime virutally unnoticed. "We're getting an ambulence. You'll be okay."


End file.
